Awakenings
by Archimedes09
Summary: What if Naruto’s eyes were opened at a younger age by someone he believed was a friend? What if that “friend” gave him a forbidden technique that he was hoping the boy would kill himself with? What if the technique gave him new hope?
1. Chapter 1

_What if Naruto's eyes were opened at a younger age by someone he believed was a friend? What if that "friend" gave him a forbidden technique that he was hoping the boy would kill himself with? And what if __that technique exponential enhanced the boy's learning curve? ._

Mizuki thought he was being rather brilliant. Henge into the Kyuubi's favorite teacher and tell him off. Shouting wouldn't work of course, but a quiet, disappointed tone should work. It seemed that to really seal the deal he'd need to become Iruka, and talk down to the boy to give him a challenge. And if the poor child died while trying to train with a forbidden technique no one would worry about it. Hell, it was the Kyuubi, no one would care anyway. Mizuki proceeded to henge into Iruka and hunt down "The Demon Brat."

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Naruto was resting on the swing, idly swaying with the breeze. He watched as the other students walked off with their parents at the end of a day. His ass had been soundly pounded into the ground by the bastard genius Sasuke that day and he was kinda grumpy. He saw Iruka-sensei walking towards him and expected him to offer him to ramen at Ichiraku like he always did when Naruto had been pounded soundly into the earth. Instead, Iruka knelt down next to him.

"Naruto, I'm sorry, but if you don't improve, you'll never advance. We can't keep allowing you to stay here after you fail out. Soon, you'll have to be a civilian, and you won't be able to perform any ninja techniques. I'll help you with this," Iruka had spoken in a soft, somber tone and was now handing Naruto the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and all the details to it. "Naruto, study this whole scroll, and use the special abilities to help you study. Remember, all for one, and one for all." With that, Iruka walked away, grinning darkly.

Naruto wondered off, dejected, but reading his scroll slowly but surely. He was trying to take in every aspect of the technique and get it right on the first try. He read every fact about the Kage Bunshin and realized just how Iruka had figured the Kage Bunshin would help him learn. Naruto rarely picked things up on the first try, so if he could try something hundreds of times at the same time it would save him a lot of effort. His current group of class mates was something to be astounded by. Especially the hand-to-hand students, Hyuuga Neji, Urameshi TenTen, and Rock Lee. Naruto realized that if he was to catch up to them, he'd need to start working immediately, since graduation was just three months away.

Naruto slunk off to the top of the Fourth Hokage's head, where he sat, reading the scroll over and over, having a strange desire to study this technique. Something in the back of his mind was telling him to get this technique right the first time. He began forming the hand seals slowly at first until he memorized them and then got his speed up, faster and faster until he could do them in seconds. Naruto began molding the chakra, massive amounts, until it was visible, becoming a beacon on the head of the Fourth, and he proceeded to release all the focused chakra into his clones, creating thousands of himself all over the monument.

"All right guys! Let's get control down!" Naruto shouted enthusiastically, before dropping to the ground, sleeping soundly. The clones, however, proceeded to train. Exactly five thousand clones practiced chakra control for exactly the next fifteen hours, until 9 o'clock in the morning the next day. At which point they dismissed themselves and integrated all of their knowledge into Naruto's sleeping mind. No headache is caused and the mental synapses can be more easily rewritten while sleeping, so the knowledge and memories are more easily integrated and put to use. Naruto woke up with his training fully integrated into his mind and fully rested, in his own bed, with his dog-cap on. He searched his memories, and found that one of his clones had carried him home late that night and put him to bed. Now, in doing all of this training, or in his case passing out, he had no clean clothing, except one outfit that Sarutobi-jiji had gotten him. Long black baggy pants, tight black close-toed shoes and a black tight t-shirt (think runner's outfit from Mirror's Edge), with a black three kunai holster built into the right leg and an equipment pouch/belt that was made for the pants. Sarutobi-jiji had made sure it was made from special silk weaved with chakra conducting thread so the material could self repair, become tougher than steel, and could clean itself all on its own(Picture Venom-like properties except not trying to take over Naruto's mind, he has Kyuubi for that). And thanks to his ridiculous training start last night Naruto now had the ability to focus his chakra through it. He got up, stomped to the shower, got clean, and got dressed, gathering the three kunai he owned, the five shuriken he had, and the pack of colored ninja smoke clouds he had, and then used his newly found chakra control to fling himself out of his previously closed window and onto the rooftops to the ninja academy.

Naruto aimed himself for Iruka's classroom window but thanks to an oddly placed gust of wind with a very specific purpose he hurtled through the wall and slid across the desk in the top row to land in his seat.

_Huh….that wall shoulda hurt more…_Naruto thought. His chakra control was now impulsive, and he had shielded himself with it as he smashed through the solid object, angering Mizuki who had knocked him off course. Iruka merely appeared shocked, wondering how this student had just done that. The drastic change in appearance shocked him even more, and he wondered why Naruto looked so different. So he did one of the most basic intelligence gathering techniques taught to all ninja from day one. He asked.

"Naruto, I'd ask what you did to my wall but frankly, I don't want to know, but what I do want to know is why you're not wearing your orange jumpsuit I got for you? You made me buy you that thing and the matching sets." Iruka asked, with a hint of wonder in his voice. For Naruto to have changed so drastically only something as equally as drastic could've happened. Iruka schooled himself and prepared for the worst.

"Eeeeh, laundry day, Iruka sensei. I wore myself out training yesterday and didn't have time to do laundry." Naruto appeared sheepish and mildy defensive, and as if reacting the shirtsleeves grew until they became long to his wrists, not impeding, but loose like a jounin's long-sleeve standard shirt. Apparently when the blonde's body became defensive his clothes extended to match. Naruto knew of multiple jounin that wore clothes like his, but they must've always been on guard. Apparently reflexive chakra training and reading some of the things in his apartment had taught him how to use this shirt more appropriately.

Naruto silently took a seat, as Iruka's shocked expression appeared to be the end of that conversation. As Iruka returned to his desk Naruto had an innocent question to ask.

"Iruka sensei, can I fill the empty seats in class with Kage Bunshin so I can learn more quickly?"

The blond shocked everyone in the class. He shouldn't know that jutsu, let alone be able to fill the whole back row. Six clones, most jounin couldn't even create six clones. But Iruka relented with a nod. And Naruto proceeded to fill the entire back row. And not just the chairs, no, but about every empty space he could fit a clone. And not even full size clones. They looked like little leprechaun Naruto chibis filling in every possible space on each desk and chair. Iruka just sat there, using all his ninja training to only gape at them a little. Then turned towards his right to face the board. He then noticed the multiple Narutos sticking to the wall outside the academy fixing the whole in the wall, like a miniature work crew. Iruka just began the days lessons, ignoring the construction work coming from his walls and the occasional catcalls from the workers to the girls in his class. He did, however, answer all of the Naruto's questions. And there were a lot of them. They didn't seem to have the same fear as the real Naruto did about asking questions and just chattered away happily, learning every little nuance about the lesson. And so went the remainder of the year, Naruto becoming steadily more brilliant and powerful, unable to make up for his grades, but able to compete physically and with jutsu with his class, even learning kenjutsu so he could give TenTen a run for her money in a straight sword battle. Well, his swords weren't straight, but they were swords.

_And so ends my new story's first chapter. My previous story died because my desire for it did too. Here's to a new chance at AWESOME._


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter 2 of Awakenings. Time to shock you and your preconceived notions. =). =)_

Naruto walked into class on the day of the graduation exam. His body lithe and wiry, still wearing his special clothes the Hokage had gotten him. He never wore anything else now. He was armed with still only the three kunai knives and now had ten shuriken in his hip pouch along with two rolls of ninja wire and his explosive clouds of showy colored ninja smoke. Being able to create multiple people from your chakra alone was a nifty trick. However, if one who is shunned finally finds a bunch of companions, they tend to withdraw. Naruto's grades had recovered miraculously almost, his ability to use ninjutsu and even genjutsu was chuunin level. He could hear better, smell better, see better, had a better sense of touch, could think more clearly, could fight using a style all his own, one based on strike once and react tactics at a chuunin level and could lead his clones flawlessly into battle. One problem however. Naruto couldn't work well with other students. He didn't trust them. He didn't need to, sense he was his own genin cell, hell his own hidden village. But he needed to display certain attributes to be able to pass as well.

Naruto had read all about the jounin's extra graduation exams, and felt himself ready to graduate and move on. He knew he'd have to pass two tests, but that wouldn't be so bad. He and a shadow clone were discussing tactics as two other shadow clones battled each other, outside on the grounds before class. Naruto hadn't taken into account one thing. His behavior prior to his use of the shadow clones.

"Naruto," Iruka-sensei called out, in a gentle tone. Naruto knew that tone. It was the tone Iruka-sensei had used it when he had presented Naruto with the kage bunshin. "Naruto, I have something to tell you. You skipped too many days this year. And your grades at the beginning of the year were too poor. We can't let you take the genin exam this year. You'll be placed in the next class, tomorrow, and you'll start fresh. I suggest you come to class every day and do your best, or else you'll have to do it again."

Naruto didn't say a thing. He didn't have to. His clones were doing it for him. The spar between his two clones had heated up to an almost homicidal point as they pounded on each other with reckless abandon. The clone he had been talking to had put its arm over the real Naruto's shoulders, and was silently consoling him through the comforting look he was giving Naruto. This is one of the reasons Naruto was being held back. He was so reliant on himself in such a strange way he'd never be able to work with his teammates.

"Oh well, I'll be able to finish mastering this jutsu I've been working on." Naruto turned around, sounding defeated. However, he held out his hand, and in it, chakra began to form. Spinning, rapidly, a blue ball rapidly forming and compressing, before forming a mature, yet non-elementally composed Rasengan. With Naruto's similar mindset to his father, and the fact that he'd had clones filling the library every day he was at school allowed him to accumulate the years of experience he would've needed and to work through all the difficulties he would've had. Naruto's chakra control was probably equivalent to a med-nin's chakra control. Naruto was a total idiot, true. But he was an idiot that had managed to make all his mistakes and learn his lessons during training with his shadow clones. But Iruka was puzzled by one thing, even though he couldn't let on he knew about the jutsu.

"Naruto, what do you mean finish that jutsu? Isn't that the Fourth's technique, the Rasengan? I thought it was done?"

"No, Iruka-sensei. The Fourth had intended to add elemental manipulation. He wanted it to be the perfect combination of form manipulation and elemental manipulation. He died, unable to perfect it," Naruto's voice dropped, as he mumbled to his clone, "I figure I could finish it for him, since he died because of me." Naruto ambled away, dejected, but talking with his clone and working on his technique. However, unbeknownst to both Naruto and Iruka, the Third Hokage was watching, and had picked up on what Naruto had said. He sat there, shocked. Apparently Naruto knew of his charge, but believed himself some form of reincarnation of the beast, having human emotions and feeling guilt for the death of the Fourth. Sarutobi knew he'd need to call the boy in for a meeting, but wasn't sure when to do it, or how he'd even go about it. This would need some planning. Sarutobi also saw the many scars running along Naruto's uncovered arms, since his sleeves had retracted after Iruka's talk. This was going to take some planning, he would need to call Ibiki and get advice on how to approach such a sensitive issue.

Naruto walked into the Academy the next morning, dejected, but optimistic. He knew he'd be able to blow through this year, and with his many new jutsu, both nin- and gen-, he'd be able to pass all the exams. Along with his newly acquired knowledge of ninja history and anatomy. Naruto had his clones constantly studying now. They would study, make their own shadow clone, and then dismiss themselves, so there was never a break in studying.

As Naruto took his traditional seat in the back of the room, he put his head down, trying not to draw attention to the fact that he had to retake the class. In subtle response to his impulsive desire his shirt grew down his arms, a mask over his face similar to the one he had seen the giggly ninja wearing, and hood that covered his head, and barely shadowed his eyes. At this point, Naruto decided that his shirt was the best shirt in the world. Iruka was the only other person in the room, and he noticed the change in the shirt, but didn't appear shocked. Indeed, he knew of Naruto's shirt and had his own type of shirt, very similar to the downtrodden blonde's. However what he knew that Naruto didn't is that the shirt caused a small but constant draw on ones chakra pool to be able to react whenever and to whatever the wearer desired. Over time it could cause one's chakra pool to grow, however, it also drained away ones chakra making a person weak in the beginning. Someone with massive chakra reserves like Naruto wouldn't notice, but your average chuunin would, and would become warn out after a day of low activity wearing the shirt.

Naruto lie on his desk quietly, scratching down notes here and there, drawing little chibi-Naruto's with Konoha forehead protectors, writing down hopeful little notes about how he'd eventually be a genin, and more powerful than all the other genin of this class because he'd know more anyway. Naruto had sensed all the students filing in, bit by bit. The chakra swirling in turmoil, he thought, must be the Uchiha. He didn't hate Sasuke, he knew what it was like to have a hard life with no one to rely on. But he'd never understand Sasuke. He had had someone to rely on at one point. He should be happily remembering all the good times he'd had with his family and not worry about his brother. Naruto knew someday Sasuke would come to that bridge, and he knew Sasuke would cross it, and burn it behind him, but he hoped he'd be all right in the mean time.

Next he felt hundreds of minute chakra signatures inside one large one. Shino Aburame. Not much known about him. Sure, Naruto had read all the class files on his classmates that Iruka would let him, but Shino was a quiet kid, a master of his insects, but not outgoing or overly threatening to one with massive chakra reserves such as himself. He couldn't really relate to Shino.

The potent chakra and a lethargic chakra came in next. Chakra is a mixture. Of body energy and mind energy and in some cases people have more body chakra or more mind, or one source is larger than the other. The more potent chakra was coming from the Akimichi. Choji's increased body mass allows his chakra to be all that more powerful. However, Nara Shikamaru has a lazy, apathetic mind and low body mass, allowing his chakra to flow docilely in his body, creating an almost lethargic movement.

At this point, Naruto felt the more bestial chakra of Inuzuka Kiba and his ninja familiar Akamaru. After their rather contained entrance Naruto zoned out, and didn't bother noticing any other chakra signatures. He did, however, note that Sasuke had sat down to his left, in the top row of the class, and that Shino had sat down to his right, while the other three boys had assumed the back row seats on the other side of the aisle. Naruto merely grunted in greeting, Shino tilted his head which he assumed Naruto could see and Sasuke let out a low noncommittal _hn_ to acknowledge Naruto's simple greeting. The boys on the other bench were chatting amiably about chips, cloud formations, and strangely, tag-team battle tactics. Kiba seemed to be the most combat oriented, but also the best trained of those three.

"Let us sit next to Sasuke-kun right now!" Ino's argument appeared to fall on deaf ears as neither Shino nor Naruto turned to respond to her loud demand. Iruka knew this couldn't possibly go well, since the girl was poking the proverbial hornets' nest. She had just shouted at the two students in the room capable of producing veritable armies from nowhere. However being the unique teacher that he was, fully believed his students should learn from their mistakes was content to watch and silently take attendance.

"Move you dolts! Let Ino-pig and I sit next to Sasuke-kun!" Sakura. Naruto knew it. Now he could differentiate their chakra pools. Sakura's had minor deviances in it, almost as if a second, yet almost exactly similar person were occupying her body. Ino's mind chakra and physical chakra were highly separated in comparison to her other comrades.

"Ano, I-I…I don't think…t-t-that you sh-sh-should bother them," stuttered out Hyuga Hinata. Both girls proceeded to turn and glare hostilely at poor Hinata. As soon as their mouths opened to shout however, they both tensed, feeling six sets of very angry eyes glaring at them. Apparently the six boys agreed with Hinata and wouldn't let the two Sasuke-obsessed teens belittle someone who was sticking up for them. The girls stomped off unhappily, finding seats near the front of the room. These simple actions proved to Naruto how these other six people, however different, were going to be good friends for each other, because they would all stick up for an innocent person. Now, however, they turned to look at him. In his aggressive state, his shirt had shifted to match, the edges of his mask tattering and retreating to his neck and his hood receding. The shirt stayed that way, now that he wasn't trying to be inconspicuous.

"Hey, name's Shikamaru, this is Choji, and that's Kiba. Haven't seen you in class before. New here?" Apparently leaving out words from a sentence was Shikamaru's way of making his life a little simpler. He must've been the laziest person Naruto had ever met.

"No, I couldn't take last year's exam because I skipped too many days," Naruto admitted unashamedly, "Doesn't really matter to me though, there wasn't anyone I was really friends with in that class so I wouldn't want to be stuck on a team with them anyway."

Shikamaru simply nodded, choosing to respond by getting up, groaning animatedly as he did so, slouching over to Naruto, and holding out his hand. Naruto took it, shook it, and looked at him, expectantly.

"Now we're friends, don't skip, have a reason to pass now." Shikamaru slouched back to chair and slumped down into it, his head banging off the table. Choji looked at Shikamaru, and then at Naruto's confused expression, assuming it was about Shikamaru.

"He says it's too troublesome to catch his head. Gravity gets it there, the desk stops it, and so he thinks why should he get involved in such a simple action?" Choji explained, grinning all the while and munching away slowly on a bag of cheddar flavored popcorn today. "My name's Choji by the way, Akimichi Choji. And Shikamaru and I are like snack cakes." He tossed a pack of cakes to Naruto, who immediately caught on and grinned at Choji, before tearing the pack open splitting the two cakes in half before sharing with everyone in the back row, and giving a piece to Hinata, who had taken a seat right in front of him. Naruto grinned at Choji's shocked expression.

"You come as a packaged set, but there's enough of both of you to go around?" Naruto grinned mischievously at Choji, know that he had just taken the boys analogy to a similar yet completely different direction.

With that little gesture Naruto had created a friendship amongst all the boys in the back row and Hinata, creating what would be called throughout that year as the Sinister Six as the boys would prank and laugh and still manage to pass. Hinata's quiet nature would keep her from participating in the pranks, but she was why they would all pass, helping them study after school with Naruto and his army of shadow clones able to gather any information they'd need. But now graduation day is at hand once again….

_Okay, another short chapter, but I'm trying to spew out short chapters in the beginning. I want my story to be like a giant bag of M&M's. Each chapter is little but the story will last for awhile. Till next time, on Awakenings!!!_


	3. Chapter 3

_Awakenings, chapter 3. Enjoy. Disclaimer-Not Kishimoto. Don't own Naruto._

_Curse you exam day!!!_ Naruto thought, incensed, as he remembered last year's miserable exam day. He couldn't fail this time. It was impossible. He was a god amongst academy students, skilled beyond his years and quite knowledgeable in jutsu, all types of jutsu. He was a great at taijutsu, a true beast at kenjutsu, quite the artist with genjutsu, a dabbler in fuuinjutsu, and a demon with ninjutsu. He still didn't know his elemental affinity however. He felt it disgraceful and didn't think about it. He did however know five elemental techniques, the basics, and had tackled the five dragon techniques of the different elements and had created his own technique. The Five Dragon Elemental Damnation technique. It summoned all five dragons simultaneously, quite intimidating, and devastating. He knew he'd be able to pass the weak little graduation test at the academy, and he figured the real graduation test wouldn't be that much harder. How wrong he was.

Naruto groaned, stretching and straining his muscles, yawned and thumped off to the bathroom to shower and prepare for his day. The hot water relaxed and rejuvenated his body and mind. Indeed, it relaxed him so much…he dozed off. He woke with only ten minutes to get to the Academy. Naruto yelped in shock and got dressed at warp eight, clothing himself in less than seventeen seconds and launching himself out his door toward the academy, strapping on his equipment as he ran. He soared through the air toward the academy, hopping from roof top to roof top.

Meanwhile, in a mild mannered classroom, Iruka was grumbling about students holding up attendance by asking him questions constantly and berating him for improper technique. At calling attendance! Iruka may have been a teacher, but he wasn't stupid. The culprits for this little stunt were the back row fiends, and oddly enough, Hinata. Naruto wasn't here yet, and they fully intended to give him as much time as possible to get here so he could pass with them. He had taken the number one spot in the class, thanks to the fact that he could make up for years of study with his shadow clones in a day. Naruto's advancement kept him and Sasuke on even terms, rivals in class but friends everywhere else. Naruto appeared to have cracked Sasuke's shell wide open and find out why he hadn't been able to gain friends. He wouldn't say a thing about it, and neither would Sasuke, but after a long hard spar on one Saturday morning the boys had been the best of friends, developing combinations and techniques together. They were true beasts on the battle field and scholastic powerhouses.

Speaking of beasts, Iruka thought he heard something roaring outside his window, and walked up to it to attempt to figure out what was happening. He opened the window, leaned out, looked around and ducked as Naruto flew over his head into the room behind him, sliding to a halt and saluting to Iruka, standing ramrod straight, with the most serious expression he could have ever had. Iruka was too shocked to say anything and could only stare at the blonde's ridiculous antics. Naruto proceeded to face the desks, salute, and march up to the top row, to take his seat between Aburame Shino and Uchiha Sasuke. Iruka sighed, he knew he had particularly strange genin hopefuls but this was ridiculous.

The examinees were called, one at a time, in alphabetic order, slowly trickling through, coming in wearing their forehead protector or not coming back at all. Finally, it was Naruto's turn to demonstrate a Henge, a Kawarimi, and a simple Bunshin. Iruka had Naruto transform into an exact replica of himself, and Naruto delivered, transforming into Iruka right down to the last detail, even the fly resting on his shoulder. Then he had to perform the Kawarimi. Replacing one's self with an object and the difficulty of the jutsu depended on the mass of the object one was using as a replacement. Naruto decided to show off a little and replaced himself with Choji, by far the largest object in the class.

Lastly, and decidedly Naruto's most difficult task because of his massive chakra reserve, would be to create three bunshin. Naruto couldn't create normal clones because he couldn't take such a small amount of chakra from his reserves. He had a minimum withdrawal limit from his chakra banks, and normal bunshin were well below that. So Naruto had to use his favorite technique because it used more chakra. Naruto used kage bunshin, merely because the clones were easier for him to form, but he liked to manifest them out of shadows when he could. Iruka watched as Naruto's shadow split up and became two bunshin and another bunshin appeared to step out of Naruto in a clean yet mesmerizing motion. It was this intimidating start that Naruto had hoped for and who wouldn't be afraid of one person appearing to have people walk out of them? The shadow clones dismissed themselves with an almost unseen motion from Iruka and Naruto collected his forehead protector from the desk, or as he liked to call it, his tie-on battering ram, as the head butt was one of his favorite moves to incorporate into a taijutsu spar. What says "Fuck You!" more than getting up in someone's face and driving your skull into theirs at high speed? Nothing, that's what. At least in Naruto's opinion.

Naruto and his classmates listened absentmindedly as Iruka gave his standard speech of how proud he was of them, told them to enjoy the day and to be back tomorrow for team and sensei assignments. Naruto decided to go treat himself to the only perfect food in the world, ramen at Ichiraku! Naruto slid off of his chair and walked swiftly yet carefully out the door, monitoring chakra signals all around him as he slunk along the shadowy halls of the Ninja Academy. He could feel other classes of shinobi and kunoichi learning and moving as they were dismissed for the day as well. He managed to walk outside before any incident occurred. However, once outside he was shocked to find the last person he expected to see.

"Naruto-kun, congratulations, on becoming a genin of Konohagakure. However, now that you're considered an adult of the village, I think it's time we had a little talk," The Sandaime Hokage said, quietly, in a grandfatherly tone, "I know you know what this is about. You however are not to blame for his death Naruto-kun. Come, we should speak of this in private, where no prying ears can hear." Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled as he glanced over towards the fence near the Academy where several heads vanished just as he looked over.

Naruto's friends wondered what the great Fire Shadow could want with their focused friend. They'd never known that Naruto knew the Hokage and could only ponder over the possible implications of such a friend in such a high place. Naturally they associated this relationship with why Naruto could get away with so many of his pranks, including painting the faces on the Hokage Monument, the giant mountain behind the Hokage's seat of power with the faces of Konohagakure's past rulers set into the stone. The real reason the Hokage and Naruto knew each other was much more horrible however.

As Naruto and the Hokage moved away, Naruto felt a slight depression tug at his mind. The Hokage was never one to mince words. The cryptic message he has used to clue Naruto in to what he had in mind meant that he knew Naruto knew, he knew Naruto's friends didn't, and he also didn't want anyone else to know. They walked in silence as the Sandaime lead Naruto to an empty class room inside the Academy building and remained silent as the Sandaime silently made hand seals, creating a minor barrier jutsu, one Naruto had studied and mastered, that would line the walls, floor, and ceiling of a room with the users chakra to make the room impenetrable to doujutsu, and soundproof. The proportion of the room along with the thickness of the desired barrier added to the difficulty of course, but with his massive chakra capacity Naruto was able to make almost any room a safe house, as long as he was in it of course. The best doujutsu users or those with specialized jutsu for eavesdropping would be able to break this jutsu if not reinforced, but the fact that Naruto's chakra sense had been effectively disable he knew that the barrier was excessively strong for this little chat.

"Naruto, I know you know of the Nine-Tailed Fox trapped within you. I also know that you know that the Fourth died to protect this village, sealing the beast inside of you, but what I don't know is the reason you think you caused the Fourth to die when you were merely hours old." The Hokage had the tone of someone who truly understood the pain that Naruto felt, someone who held regret and thought that the deaths of other men were accredited to his decisions.

"I just don't think it's fair that a reincarnation of a demon lived, while the village's greatest hero died" Naruto said. His eyes were still shining with light, but the smile he held around his friends seemed as if it would never exist on his face again.

"Naruto…I'm trying to find the best way to explain this to you….the ramen and the bowl that contain it are two totally different entities, are they not?" The Hokage smiled slightly seeing the boy's eyes and ears perk up at the mention of ramen. And then it happened. The look of stupefied understanding struck the boy. And his face began to stretch and distort with the slowly forming toothy smile that came with understanding you are not what you thought you were and that it turns out you're not a hell raising demon, just something that holds it back.

"Now, Naruto, the demon may try to contact you, for now it's just sleeping to regenerate all the strength it lost during the battle against Konoha, and it may offer you power. I implore you do not take any offer it may give you. The fox is trapped within you and the seal allows you access to the Kyuubi's power, limited as it may be, so do not listen to it. I intend to have my pupil Jiraiya-."

"Jiraiya, the seal master, Toad Sage of Mount Myobokuzan, your student, the "rock" of your team and the Author of the Icha-Icha Paradise adult literature books? The same man that wrote an autobiography titled Naruto that I was named after and my godfather?" Naruto had done his research. He knew who is father was and subsequently who his godfather was. Judging by the light in his eyes he was dying to meet him…or kick his ass so hard Jiraiya wouldn't be able to sit or walk for months.

"Yes Naruto, that's who I mean. I do hope you don't intend to attempt to fight him before he checks your seal. That's wouldn't be very beneficial for either of us. Either way, I'll send a notice for him; he should be here within a week. Until then, remember what I said. And if you intend to defeat Jiraiya I suggest you train and prepare to use all the ninja tactics you know." Sarutobi thought that he would just egg Naruto on a little and that he would be able to spur Naruto's training on to keep him sharp. He knew of Naruto's training method. He just didn't know that Naruto wasn't truly pushing himself as far as he could. Naruto intended to advance several years in the next two weeks learning with his shadow clones and ran off to the waterfall oasis that was his training ground and home away from home. Poor Jiraiya wasn't going to know what hit him. And Naruto naturally knew that he'd have to use the elements to his advantage, especially the ninja element of surprise. This was going to be a long week.


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter 4_

Naruto walked back into the classroom the next day and cracked his back as he walked through the door. He felt better, like some horrible guilt had been lifted from his shoulders, and now he felt like he could take on the world. He held out his hands to form a Rasengan in each, just to make sure he could still do it. Late last night he had woken up with the Rasengan spinning in each hand and he had no idea how he had formed the chakra orbs but somehow, in his sleeping state, he create them just fine. The classroom was empty so he knew none of his peers would see his technique, and he didn't trust them with any of his personal techniques. When he helped them train he didn't teach them anything new, he just helped them with whatever they were working on, learning their jutsu for himself faster, being an almost bigger leach than the Uchiha Sharingan was.

Naruto had a theory about his sleeping technique practice. He used seven-hundred and thirty shadow clones working for twelve hours straight each day to accumulate one year worth of experience. When he dismissed them at night the knowledge they had acquired would be sorted during his time asleep and this caused him to sleep-practice his techniques. He had been using this method for two months now, accumulating about sixty years of experience. His body hadn't changed much physically, other than he now resembled a possible future sixteen year old version of himself. The accumulated time tricked his body into believing more time had passed, but the nine-tails kept a cap on his growth so his body didn't over accelerate it.

Naruto was focusing intently on his shirt. He was trying to see if he could make the shirt do more than just change shape and relative hardness. He wanted to see if he could make his shirt grow into armor similar to active ANBU armor. He envied them because he knew what they were capable of and what it took to escape them. When you spent your childhood screwing with the most important historical monuments in the village you learned a thing or two about the village's most important ninja core. Things like they were fast, strong and masters of investigation. So he learned to hide and run well. So far Naruto had created the arm guards and shoulder pads, but the chest plate was just too large an area for him to do it without exuding a large amount of chakra. He didn't want to risk such an exercise in a largely populated or desolate area. He could risk such an attempt at the ninja academy since chakra was always in use and sometimes got a little out of hand. So, he started pumping chakra into the shirt, forcing it to mutate and change. He felt it build until the armor mutated out of the shirt. He cut off the flow of chakra, expecting the shirt to revert back to normal, like it usually did. This time it didn't however. The armor stayed and the shirt stopped drawing on his chakra. Panicking slightly Naruto sent a shadow clone to make an appointment with the Lord Hokage.

During his intense little chakra focusing session he missed that Iruka had come into the classroom and had watched him create the armor. Iruka knew about Naruto's shirt and didn't worry a bit about it. Iruka knew it was actually an ANBU issued recruit uniform shirt and that part of proving you could perform in ANBU was to manifest the armor from the shirt. Iruka cleared his throat as the other children came in, to give Naruto a little warning to their entrance. Naruto snapped to attention and looked straight ahead; startled that he hadn't heard anyone enter the room. That scared him, that meant he was becoming relaxed, complacent, and he didn't approve of such a thing one bit.

He didn't know which team he'd be placed on, being the top of the class. Hell, he was a team in and of himself thanks to his Shadow Clone technique, and soon, once he developed his secret technique, he would be faster than anyone, maybe even as fast as the Fourth Hokage himself. His technique was remarkably similar to the Flying Thunder God technique. The Roaring Hurricane Lord, as he liked to call it, was his most mighty technique, using his elemental chakra to transport himself through a vacuum of roaring wind. He just couldn't figure out a way to focus and anchor the massive spiral.

Shikamaru sat down next to Naruto, Chouji taking the seat next to Shikamaru. Sasuke and Hinata slipped in quietly and sat down in front of Naruto. Finally, Kiba arrived silently through the window, which had somehow opened before he arrived. Akamaru yipped happily, trying to escape his master's jacket and attack Sasuke's face with his tongue.

During training one day, Sasuke had been throwing shuriken on his wires to master a new technique he called the Tethered Fire Dragon technique. He had to achieve complete mastery with his wires though, or else he'd lose control of a Fire Dragon, and that had never led to good things. As Sasuke had been practicing Akamaru had begun to chase the shuriken around as they flew. Akamaru's new game had begun caused Sasuke to quit focusing on control and to focus on keeping the shuriken moving in new directions, constantly avoiding Akamaru's excited jaws. Ever since that incident Sasuke had become more skilled with his wire and Akamaru had taken to attacking Sasuke whenever they were near each other.

The group was quietly awaiting Aburame Shino, the entire atmosphere of the six friends a somber mood. All of them knew what would happen today. It'd be the first time they'd been forced not to train together and practice together. This really wouldn't change much, other than the amount of time they spent together. Naruto and Sasuke now lived together, and all the others spent as much time at the Uchiha clan complex as possible. The complex had found new life, and new sources of memories, slowly healing the damage done during the massacre. As Shino silently approached them and sat down the ninjas faces all turned into masks of living ceramic, no emotions or thoughts being betrayed.

Iruka gathered up his papers and began reading off the team listings. The seven friends tuned it out, attempting to hide their minds pain, Naruto's mind a hurricane of emotion. 'I tried so hard to keep all these people at arms distance and just to help them and use them and now I feel like I'm connected to them? Is this…friendship?' Naruto thought. He had done his best to stay distant, never sharing his knowledge with them. He had failed.

"…Naruto Uzumaki, Shikamaru Nara, and Ino Yamanaka, you'll make up team seven with Asuma Sarutobi as your sensei, Sasuke Uchiha, Kiba Inuzuka and Sakura Haruno will make up team eight with Kakashi Hatake, Shino Aburame, Hinata Hyuuga, Chouji Akamichi, you will make up team nine under Kurenai Yuuhi. The instructors will be here to pick you up sometime today. Just be here all day, they'll get you eventually." At the disgruntled looks of the kids Iruka just sighed. He knew that they didn't like it, but he say no point in lying to them. The eccentric instructors would show on their own time and would test the children's patience to the absolute extreme. Now it was just time for them to sit…and wait…

Naruto didn't know if he should shout for joy or whine. Apparently Asuma, Kakashi and Kurenai were all skipping out on picking up their teams. Naruto and Sasuke were grappling, practicing a close-quarters combat routine that relied on using the opponents mass and momentum to gain the upper hand. Shikamaru and Hinata were playing shogi and were locked in an intense staring match. Chouji and Kiba were playing catch with Akamaru jumping between them, and Shino was….sitting. That was it. The two fan girls were sitting and watching as all the friends interacted happily, glaring as Naruto and Sasuke wrestled, intensely jealous of the blond.

Naruto felt the chakra signatures first, followed closely by Sasuke and the rest of the friends. In a seamless display of Naruto created seven clones and made them look like his friends using the Copycat Technique. They replaced themselves with the clones and all took to hiding around the room in various places. The door opened and all three sensei entered quietly. In a timed and flawless execution the genin clones attacked the Jounin-sensei. The sensei swatted them down, the clones not dismissing, but bouncing up and taking up fighting stances, maintaining the illusion that they were the real students.

The real students and clones suddenly attacked simultaneously, throwing multiple shuriken bolos, trapping the sensei from multiple angles and pinning them to the floor. They stood over the sensei with demonic expressions, abundant amounts of rage easily detectable.

Naruto crouched down in front of them and whispered "Don't be late again, or we'll not be so nice. Meet us on the roof for introductions in five minutes, or we'll be playing tag."

Sasuke snickered as he played with an explosive tag, showing them what Naruto really meant, before they leapt out the window and shot to the roof, Sakura and Ino sprinting out the door over the sensei, attempting to get to the roof as quickly as possible.

Kakashi chuckled from where he sat on the desk, looking at the other two instructors.

"I told you not to underestimate them. This year is going to be fun," he said, before using the body flicker technique to leave the room and the other jounin-sensei struggling to untie themselves.

"Well shit…" Asuma Sarutobi ground out through gritted teeth "this should be a fun year."

Fun stuff. Yay. Chapter's over. Remember, in response to a review I don't totally remember, Naruto isn't friends with them in the typical sense. He didn't connect with the students, he knew those six would be good friends. He still considers himself an outsider. Sasuke and Naruto appear to be on even terms, just because Naruto uses Sasuke as the mark to which he should show his power, nothing stronger. Naruto is vastly superior. Also, this is a totally applicable scenario. If Naruto could steal the forbidden scroll in the series, he could take down some unsuspecting senseis who think they're dealing with raw recruits. Also, I don't have a beta, so ignore the mistakes. That's an order.


	5. Chapter 5

_Shitstorm of crap, I hate it._

Team Seven sat in front of their sensei, watching him appraisingly as he did the same to them, sizing each other up and trying to get a general feel for each others' abilities. Naruto had the easiest time of figuring out Asuma's abilities while Shikamaru had a pretty good read on him. Ino was just mocking the two boys by matching their pose and expressions as best she could. Asuma on the other hand was slightly thrown off. The two boys' abilities were nearly impossible for him to sense, and this had never happened with a new batch of Genin before, let alone a lazy, green Genin, and a Genin who pulled a full grade and effort one-eighty.

"All right, well according to my dad we have to get to know each other, then we have to do an actual Genin exam, and then after that we'll have some team practice." Asuma smiled slyly as he said this, expecting his reputation as the Hokage's son to cause the kids to shudder a little. Ino looked on in awe, having figured it out, but Naruto and Shikamaru just looked at Asuma puzzled. Asuma thought he'd been all wrong, until…

"Will you ever want your father's job? I'd like it because it was my father's job, and that's the best way to honor him, so if you're going to stand in my way it'd probably be easier just to off you now." Naruto's honest, near innocent expression left Sarutobi Asuma speechless, and the slight shift in Shikamaru's body was enough to tell Asuma why his look had been as measuring as it had. He hadn't been watching Asuma to find his motivation in saying he was the Hokage's son, he had been watching Naruto to see how rashly he would act.

Everyone in the tight-knit group of friends knew about Naruto's father. It wasn't hard to figure out, especially with the Uchiha clan records lying around, and Naruto's scary resemblance to Minato, along with six of the most bright and talented young ninja furthering their abilities constantly, someone was bound to figure it out eventually.

Shikamaru remembered the day Naruto laid out his real motivations for becoming the Hokage. Naruto had sat them all down at the Uchiha clan complex and told them all the true tale of the Nine Tailed Fox, of how the Kyuubi had lived, been sealed inside the Fourth's son, and how the Fourth had died protecting the vessel with the last few moments of his life. Shikamaru also remembered everyone's reactions.

-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v

Naruto sat, facing them as he finished his tale. There was no fear in him. He didn't worry about how they would react or whether or not they would betray his trust in them. You had to trust someone to be betrayed, and Naruto told himself he never trusted any of them. So when he finally finished and looked at their angry faces, he still wasn't worried.

"…..and that's that. My dad made me a carrier of the most powerful demon in existence. Some day in the future I'll master it and use it to make Konoha the safest place in all the shinobi nations in honor of the sacrifice he made. And I'll prove everyone wrong, showing them I'm not the fox, that the fox is mine to deal with and use as I see fit. So what do you think? Worth the risk of hanging around me to see it happen or are you going to run screaming?" Naruto said thoughtlessly, keeping his chakra flow slow and serene to avoid a reaction from the people around him.

Sasuke spoke first, surprisingly enough. "So this is what you interrupted my training for?" He snorted derisively. "The Uchiha complex has extensive records on the nine tails. I figured this out weeks ago. Not to mention you look exactly like him and you have the same drive they keep telling us to have." At that, Sasuke got up and walked out, unaffected by the happenings of the evening. After that simple dismissal everyone else seemed angry that Naruto had thought so little of them. And Hinata made that quiet clear.

"Naruto-kun…you're an idiot if you thought we'd leave you. We're shinobi. This isn't the weirdest or worst thing in the world. But Sasuke's right. Genin exams are coming up and not all of us are as good as you." Hinata left, focusing chakra through her palms as she did so. The others of the group swiftly left back to their training and Naruto had to sit there shocked, because of all the reactions he'd expected, this was not it.

-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v-^v

Shikamaru was brought back from his thoughts when he realized Asuma was glaring at Naruto and instead of Naruto glaring back he was sitting there, writing. He was ignoring whatever Asuma had just asked him to practice his fuuinjutsu. Shikamaru quickly recognized the seals Naruto was practicing. It was for a sealing scroll, the only problem was Naruto wasn't drawing it on a scroll. He was drawing it on the inside of a pan. He had pulled the pan from another scroll.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" Shikamaru questioned. He was short on patience since he knew a battle was coming with the unknown Jounin set to watch over them.

"I just thought of something. Why do I seal a container of ramen and a container of water and a pot all up when I could put two seals in the pan, one for the right measure of water and one for the right amount of ramen and just seal the pan. Hell, I bet I could seal some ignition source in the bottom of the pan so all I have to do is sit down and run a little chakra through it and TA DA all done! It's a stroke of genius!" Naruto finished his rant and resume his focus.

Shikamaru noted that Naruto was way too intensely into this, especially since he knew a fight was coming too, and reexamined the seals. There, he noticed, hidden in the seal, was an explosives seal. 'What are you going to do Naruto….'

"All right, that's enough, pay attention Naruto, it's not good of you to ignore your superiors, even if you do have a couple shadow clones around listening. I take it you and Shikamaru know each other pretty well, but for Ino's benefit please, introduce yourselves." Asuma stayed quiet, waiting for Naruto to introduce himself, and although he didn't wait long, he wasn't exactly overwhelmed by the introduction.

"I'm Naruto Uzamaki, and I'm busy."

"I'm Shikimaru Nara, and this is too troublesome."

"Uh…I'm Ino Yamanaka and I'm a mental jutsu specialist in training, I work at my family's flowershop and I –"

"-talk too much." Finished Naruto for her. Needless to say this upset her but either the glare Asuma was giving him or the nonchalance with which he was shrugging it off kept her tongue in her mouth and her mouth closed.

"Not helpful Naruto. You should pay attention and learn from your teammates, not shut them down." Asuma reprimanded.

"Yeah, that's true, but I already know all that since I've read her file, so have you, and so has Shikamaru, so we're ready for your test, which might I add, means you're not technically our commander until we're technically Genin, so before you can court martial me for it-" And at that Naruto blew a huge raspberry at Asuma, making sure it was the loudest, wettest, grossest raspberry he ever blew, as did his shadow clones, so Asuma got it in 5.1 Surround Sound.

"This is going to be troublesome…" Shikamaru and Asuma said in stereo.


	6. Chapter 6

_Time to continue. It's the summer. I'm a college student. I'm also lazy. WEEEEEEEE!_

"Ha ha, stereo. Upgrade!" All five Naruto clones shouted at once. All were tense and prepared, waiting for Asuma to yell or throw something at them.

Asuma was relaxed. He was lazy, like Shikamaru, and usually skated by on the minimum, regardless of what his file said about him. He really hadn't planned on giving them a full physical test. He knew what their files said and knew that his father assigned him this particular team because he thought they were ready. But Naruto had hit a nerve by disrespecting him. Even though Naruto was technically correct and Asuma wasn't yet their assigned commander and Naruto wasn't technically a genin, Asuma didn't like the disrespect he was showing him, regardless of how he grew up or how he suffered.

'_Time to put him in his place like his dad had to do to Kakashi' _Asuma thought, internally grumbling. "All right, if that's how it's going to be I guess we can skip the day of rest and preparation and go straight to the test. You have to fight me. And you have to hurt me, not just hit me. You have to draw blood, because that's how I'll be fighting. Meet me at training ground seven in five minutes and be ready."

All five Narutos dissolved, blowing away in the wind like dust. Shikamaru turned around and walked into his own shadow, disappearing. Asuma used the Shunshin and vanished. Ino huffed and started hopping from building to building, complaining out loud the entire time about her teams cool transportation techniques and wondering why they couldn't have just taken her with them.

"So you finished the projection and dissolving techniques huh?" Shikamaru asked to the air when he stepped out of the shadow of the training post.

"Yeah, pretty cool huh?" Naruto spoke out from his perch on top of the training post Shikamaru had just appeared from.

Shikamaru grunted. "How tough do you think this will be?"

"Not too bad. I've been leaking chakra into the wind currents here and unless we have the shittiest luck possible and have the only other wind user in Konoha as a sensei then I should be able to cut him as soon as he gets here. The odds of that happen are like a million to one though, right? Besides, I have my ramen pot here to deal with him." Naruto elaborated, smoke rising from the pot as he sealed something inside it. Climbing down from his post he started a fire using a small katon technique, setting his pot to boil on the red flames.

"What's in that, anyway?" Shikamaru asked, leaning over and seeing only water in the pot.

"Trust me, you don't want to know. Zero accountability for this one." Naruto answered mischieviously, flashing a foxy grin and sitting down to wait.

Two hours later Asuma arrived to a boiling pot of water and a serene looking Shikamaru and Naruto. Ino was nowhere to be seen, but Asuma sensed her chakra just off the field. Naruto and Shikamaru looked at him, then looked back at the pot as Naruto poked the water with a stick and dark noodles filled the water. _'Huh, those didn't take long to be soft. Maybe he seals them pre-cooked then just warms them up.' _Asuma thought.

Meanwhile, Naruto and Shikamaru were staring at Asuma, acting like nothing was going on. Shikamaru was tense, waiting to see what Naruto did, but Naruto didn't seem to want to show his cards too soon.

"Asuma-sensei! BLEED!" Naruto shouted, making a single hand seal and charging the wind with blades to slash at Asuma. Shikamaru and Naruto leapt up, preparing to patch up their sensei, watching as Asuma appeared to shimmer from all the chakra laced wind around him.

Just as Shikamaru thought Naruto's plan had worked, he heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and turned toward Naruto, who was holding Asuma's fist with his. "Throw the pot at us damnit! Stop staring!" Naruto yelled, visibly straining from holding back Asuma's fist. Shikamaru did just that, water and noodles coating Asuma, the pot landing at the dead-locked ninjas' feet.

"You think a pot of noodles is going to hurt me?" Asuma growled out Naruto, outraged that this little shit had come so close to hurting him. And indeed Naruto had come closer than he had first thought. Now that he was close up he could see that Asuma's clothing had been shredded and that his skin had red welts developing from the attacks, but he hadn't been close.

"Heh, two things, Asuma-sensei! One! I am the plucky little hero!" Naruto said gleefully as he and Shikamaru executed replacement techniques with logs Naruto had scattered around the battlefield. "AND TWO! THOSE AREN'T NOODLES!"

Asuma heard sizzling and looked at the noodles that were coating his body. And they weren't. "WHO GIVES A CHILD DET-CORD!" Asuma shouted, as he too attempted to replace himself with one of the many logs scattered around. Every time he attempted to reach for a log however his chakra would get kicked away by the saturated air. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK," he shouted, tearing the burning and hissing det-cord from his body, ripping off chunks of clothing as he did so.

Naruto and Shikamaru were watching from outside the field, hidden quietly in the shadow of a large tree. Both were snickering and both were holding their mouths to keep from laughing too loudly.

"When do you think he'll realize that's just sparkler powder coating some wire?" Shikamaru asked Naruto, knowing that Naruto wouldn't really kill their assigned sensei.

"As soon as he steps into the next trap." Naruto choked out from behind his own hand and laughter. Naruto had planned this strategy from the beginning. The next phase was-

"AUUUUGH YOU BASTARD CHILDREN!"

-to capture their opponent in ninja wire by only giving him a single log to switch with. Naruto and Shikamaru tore from their hiding spot, sprinting across the field to finish their task, kunai drawn and prepared to slash their sensei anywhere they could reach. As they approached their sensei they both drew extremely low to the ground, ready to slam into him at full force, but when they arrived they came screeching to a halt right in front of him. Asuma's cheek was bleeding already…

"Huh…didn't think that'd cut him. Cool." Naruto said, at a loss for words. After his wind had failed to hurt the only other wind user in Konoha Naruto had expected a long, drawn out fight to happen that would've spanned hours and would be cut into six or seven chapters of his autobiography to keep the readers interested and act as a filler arc. He did not expect this. As he stared on dumbfounded by the small incision on Asuma's cheek, Ino walked up to the tree Asuma had been tied to and tugged her own kunai out of the tree next to Asuma's head.

"Thanks for the help boys, but as you can see I finished what you started. Maybe next time you'll be a little quicker on the draw," Ino smirked, knowing she had stolen their thunder and left them speechless. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and waited for them to congratulate her.

Instead of that Naruto drew his kunai back and stabbed Asuma in the chest, just to have it melt into mud and slide down the tree. "All right, Shika, assessment."

"Mud clone, ventriloquism technique, trap."

"Yep…fuck." Naruto and Shikamaru leapt away from the area, Ino too stunned by Naruto's blatant stabbing of a superior Konoha officer and then cool inquiry afterward to move.

"So what do we do? We've got some boss sensei who we can't hurt like this, a cocky teammate who's going to get hurt and I blew up my ramen pot for nothing. Any thoughts?" Naruto asked Shikamaru as they hid in a tree on the opposite side of the field. Surprisingly, nothing had happened to Ino and she had slunk off moments later into her own hiding spot.

"I shadow bind him and you cut him. But for that we're going to have to get him direct combat and that's going to be hard enough as it is. He's keeping us at a distance. I guess our shitty introductions made him curious. Troublesome…"

"I can get him in to open combat. I can use the demon's chakra to pull him right in like a magnet to belt buckle."

"Sasuke's still mad about that you know. You probably shouldn't have magnetized his belt buckle and then thrown shuriken at him during training."

"Taught him to dodge with his center of mass more, didn't it?"

"Can you really call that his center of mass?" Shikamaru asked innocently.

"Ha ha. No. Ha ha, tiny penis joke, ha ha, innuendo."

"Sometimes you worry me Naruto…"

With that Naruto shot off into the center of the field, turning it up to eleven and letting the demon fox's chakra leak from his body. It took all of three seconds for Asuma to come darting out his hiding space attempting to shut Naruto down, but Naruto faced him, flipped him off and started running away from him on all fours immediately. Naruto let Asuma chase him around the field for five minutes, Shikamaru chuckling the whole time, setting their trap. Shikamaru didn't know what the signal to strike was but he knew he'd know it when he saw it.

And he did. Ten minutes later Naruto shot forward, putting a lot of distance between Asuma and himself, landing just short of Shikamaru's hiding spot. The first tail of the fox cloak was forming and the foul chakra was getting stronger, appearing to power up for an attack. Just as Asuma started to close the distance Naruto's fox tail was whipping back and forth before suddenly tearing his pants to his ankles and giving Asuma a face full of bare ass.

As anyone can imagine, a demon fox child suddenly baring his ass to you during what appeared to be a life or death chase shocked Asuma, enough to bring him to a standstill. And that was his mistake.

"Shadow bind technique, success," Shikamaru said from his place under the canopy of trees. With that, Naruto used his fox tail to pull a kunai from his pouch and flick it right at Asuma, slashing his bicep and drawing blood, ending the test.

Asuma was livid. Not only had he been beaten by an ass, literally and figuratively, he had been so worried about what the foul chakra meant that he had forgotten he was dealing with multiple people, one of which was level headed and hadn't run away immediately.

Naruto however, was ecstatic. "When my moon hits your eyes like a big pizza pie, I'm a winnin'. That was…illuminating. My plan was shear…lunacy! I made the jounin sensei…crack! Ah ha ha ha ha ha! This is too much fun." Naruto taunted the jounin who was still caught in the shadow bind, letting the fox's chakra recede back into his body and clearing the air of all the rest of his chakra.

"Naruto, we're genin now, we should show some respect to our elders," Shikamaru scolded.

"Meh, I guess. He looks furious, think he'll hurt us if we let him go?"

"No, I won't hurt you. We need to talk though. That was both reckless and stupid. This is going to be a long talk too kid, so I hope you're ready." Asuma said, headache forming already.


	7. Chapter 7

_I'm back, maybe, when I finish this at least. _

Asuma wasn't happy, to say the least. His head was throbbing. His clothes were shredded. These two little shits had beat him in record time without hardly any help from their other teammate. And one of them had beaten him ass backwards, literally. It was despicable. Ino had come up to them immediately and tried to berate them about such a technique but Shikamaru had caught her with his shadow and Naruto had peeled off one of his dirty socks and stuffed it in her bitching mouth without hesitating. Asuma was shocked, angry, and mildly amused. It was good to see teammates that wouldn't take shit from someone else but at the same time they were supposed to work with her and this was not a good start.

"_Time to have a chat with them," _Asuma thought exasperatedly. "Listen you guys, I'll give you points for beating me, and I'll even give you points for thinking with your head, even if it was a little asinine." Naruto started laughing at this point.

"Asinine? More like ass-o-nine tails! Ba ha ha ha ha."

"Thank you for the input but you can shut up now," Asuma replied, preparing to finally give them what for; "That was good strategy, but the point of this test was teamwork. You were supposed to work with Ino and beat me together, to prove you had what it takes to be a team. Naruto, you're use of **That** was reckless and dangerous and could have brought the Hokage out here personally."

"Oh, no, Asuma, my fox cloak wouldn't have brought the Hokage any closer to this field than he already was, isn't that right Old Man?" Naruto asked to nobody.

"That's true Naruto, and thank you for warning me of your plan. But I thought I told you never to use **That**?" The wizened Hokage said as he stepped out from the tree line.

"Oh come on, I've researched this seal so much I probably know more about it than you do! I know all the safety measures that were included and I can do more with it! The eight-tales container has full control over his demon!" Naruto responded rebelliously. Naruto did indeed know about the other demon containers and he fully intended to meet each one and see what their lives were like, to see if he was truly one of a kind or if there were others out there like him.

"Okay, what the hell is going on here?" Ino finally shouted, snapping out of her stupor brought on by the most powerful man in the village being in her immediate vicinity. Now that she had finally gone off she wasn't going to let her momentum go without at least getting some answers. She kept her eyes tightly shut just in case someone was looking at her. She pointed in the Hokage's general direction and began, "Okay, why do you know Naruto, why are you here, what is **THAT**, why did Naruto glow like that and what do you mean warning you of his plan?"

Everyone was mildly surprised at this, but two shinobi that had decades of experience, one shinobi who was genius level, and one shinobi who had pseudo trained for a hundred years time weren't easily shaken. So when Ino finally opened her eyes she only saw one thing. Emptiness.

"Do you think it was a good idea to just leave her back there?" Asuma asked amusedly as he walked beside Shikamaru who was following Naruto and the Hokage closely. Asuma noted that Shikamaru's expression was similar to the one he had on at the beginning of their team meeting. Asuma had to know. "You don't expect Naruto to pull anything on the Hokage, do you?"

Shikamaru gave Asuma a three-second look that said it all. _"Yes, I fully expect Naruto to do anything he wants to anyone he wants because he's that powerful. I don't __**THINK **__ he's that powerful, I __**KNOW **__he's that powerful." _That was it. Asuma couldn't believe it. "Asuma-sensei, why do you think the teams ended up the way they did?"

"Because the instructors and the Hokage decided this was the best arrangement, as always." Asuma answered warily.

"No. Naruto came into this year, and after he met us, he came up with a plan. Each team is optimized so that each team has the highest chance of survival in any conflict, and Naruto planned it that way. He made sure our grades were modified and that we'd all pass just the way we did. The only reason the Hokage knew about Naruto's plan is because Naruto met with him, and told him he was going to pass no matter what and that he should expect anything, because he didn't plan to let any of his friends fail." Shikamaru explained, using way more words than he wanted to. Shikamaru had been told by Naruto that once they passed they could let their sensei know, and he had indeed told Shikamaru to tell Asuma as soon as he asked about it.

"If you guys did all this, and you're advanced as you say you are, why'd you walk into my trap?" Asuma asked skeptically.

"Ino." Shikamaru said as if the girl's name should explain everything.

When Asuma looked at Shikamaru quizzically Shikamaru elaborated.

"You said you'd be going all out, and Naruto doesn't take chances. You probably already know about his Shadow Clone training method, but what you probably don't know is that he's used it to train for an equivalent of one hundred years, before he finally decided he felt old enough that he needed to calm down. Needless to say, but I'll say it regardless, the guy doesn't take chances."

This revelation immediately set Asuma on edge. A raw genin with enough training to be equivalent to a Sannin or Hokage was dangerous, and the fact that Shikamaru was on this team with Naruto, if Naruto rigged the teams like they said, made a creepy kind of sense. Shikamaru wasn't here as a strategist. He was here as a grounding rod. To keep Naruto in reality, not a hundred years fatigued. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Naruto had ensured his own sanity by stacking things the way he had. All the teams were set to have people on them that could balance Naruto's emotional state. Kiba and Sasuke could keep him measured and sane, Hinata, Shino, and Chouji kept him calm, serene and aware of the people that care about him, and Shikamaru always had a voice of reason.

"Naruto set up everything to ensure his safety." Asuma said in a faraway voice.

"Yep."

Meanwhile, with Naruto and the Hokage….

"You're beginning to show your age Naruto. Setting up the teams this way, warning me of your plans. Taking so much into consideration. One might think you're burning out too early."

"I know Hokage-sama. That's why I've stopped using that training method. Oddly enough, it's thanks to the Kyuubi that I don't look as old as you do," Naruto said cheekily, "In reality the thing is more blessing than curse every day. Someday I'll have full control over it. But that day is a few years from now, when I meet a mentor strong enough to hold me back while I train, probably another Jinchuuriki or when one of your loyal students comes back and I trick them into helping me."

"Mmm, one day Naruto I hope we're finally at peace enough for you to reach your dreams, but I wonder at what cost they will come," the Hokage mused out loud. The Hokage was used to Naruto talking about these things with him. Not to mention the boy was using his chakra to project a wave oscillating at the destructive frequency of their voices to stop them from being over heard. His training was incredible, and he had become quite the power house. But it worried the Hokage that Naruto had taken a hundred odd years to finally become wise enough to realize these things. He wondered how innocent the boy would've stayed if he hadn't spent so much time training.

"By the way Naruto, do you think it wise to leave your teammate behind like that?"

"If she couldn't sense us leaving then she isn't a shinobi worthy of the Konoha headband and she needs to get her priorities straight. He father's a genius and his best friends are too, she should've been one of the best shinobi of our generation, but her father couldn't do what was necessary to get her in line and off of Sasuke. Speaking of which, how was his last mental eval?"

"He's doing much better, thanks to you I believe. Revealing your secret taught him that some people have it worse than he, and I think that grounded him. To want revenge on the killer of your family is one thing, but to learn that the killer of your best friend's family was sealed within him and he can do nothing about it without ending his own life showed him a level of tolerance he couldn't begin to fathom."

"You know, when you put it like that, during my final fight I think I'll hold on as long as I can and then shout "Fuck you, you furry bastard" and take one to the face."

"Naruto!"

_Shit, I didn't realize we'd arrived._ Naruto immediately started thinking of an excuse as to why he'd said such a thing. Naruto and crew had arrived at Ichiraku Ramen for their first team lunch and since he had subconsciously stopped his field upon entering the establishment Ayame had heard his final outburst. Before he could do anything however, the Hokage stepped in.

"I assure you young lady, what Naruto-kun said was completely in jest. I must be off, paperwork awaits and I must attempt to finish it early, or I fear Konohamaru will ruin the papers on my desk once again." The Hokage had no problem making the most serious things sound like nothing would come of them, but years in office had taught him how to calm others with just a twitch of his eye and a gentle smile.

"You know, I'd suggest the Shadow Clone technique to speed that up, but with the problem I'm currently dealing with I'm sure you'd rather stay away from such things."

The Hokage just chuckled and excused himself, nodding to Asuma and winking at Shikamaru before stepping out into the mid-afternoon sun.

"Well, now that you two are finally filling your mouths, maybe you'll be quiet long enough to listen to me. I read Ino's file and her psych evaluation and I know you two have read it too. But maybe you should put the file aside and learn more about the girl?" Asuma hoped that suggesting it like this would get the boys to see things properly.

"We could, and we will. But we need to show her how absolutely far behind she is compared to us. You know as well as we do that we're going to keep going at this pace and that if she falls behind she could get killed by someone and more importantly, we might end up killing her if she doesn't have an idea of how powerful jutsu can be. I mean come on, the academy jutsu, while completely useful, have nothing on some of the more powerful jutsu we train with on each other as practice, let alone ones we'll used to kill people." Naruto said, somehow managing to not stop eating the whole time, even switching bowls, while he gave his oration.

Shikamaru made a positive tapping noise with his chopsticks.

"Besides, imagine you and Kakashi-sensei fighting as hard as you can then a rabbit steps in the way. SPLAT! That's it. Or in your case, shredded meat cubes, followed by Kakashi's Chidori cooking the thing. Then you eat it with the person you're battling with, share a good laugh, have a smoke, then continue your battle."

"Okay, one, good analysis if a little graphic. Two, how do you know about what jutsu we use? And three, you're eating! How are you thinking about food! Seriously? You're eating like an Akimichi." Asuma was exasperated. Food was always on this kids mind.

Shikamaru made a negative noise with his chopsticks at the call on the Akimichi and Asuma looked at him like he had no room to talk. And indeed he didn't. Both Naruto and Shikamaru had eaten four bowls of ramen and were moving on to their fifth. Asuma wasn't sure how he was going to afford this if this is the rate that they consume food.

"When is Ino going to show up anyway? Shouldn't she be here by now? If she's going to be a shinobi she should at least be able to track three of the most recognizable guys in the village and Shikamaru," Naruto said with a scowl on his face. He obviously wasn't very impressed with Ino's apparent lack of skills following the village scapegoat, the village leader, and the village leader's son, along with the only person who walks without his eyes open regardless of the crowd in the area.

Ino was wandering through Konoha, wondering where her teammates had gone and more importantly, to her anyway, how they had the gall to leave her behind. They were supposed to be teammates, and they were supposed to follow her orders. Her daddy was the leader of his team and she would be leader of her cell no matter what. Just because they'd been ahead of her in class, and just because they'd beaten their jounin sensei if minutes, and just because one of them had family jutsu and the other has two types of chakra doesn't mean she wouldn't be the leader of the team dammit! Now she just had to figure out where the hell her teammates had gone.

"-she be here by now? If she's going to be a shinobi she should at least be able to track three of the most recognizable guys in the village and Shikamaru."

_THAT VOICE! HE THINKS HE CAN TALK ABOUT ME BEHIND MY BACK! I'LL GET HIM!_ Ino shouted inside her mind. She walked up to the curtain and violently flung it open, only to see the stack of bowls on the counter and their sensei slurping soup out of his bowl. At which point the curtain remembered gravity and slapped her in the back of the head. It should be noted that the curtain had weighted rods slid into the bottom of the flaps so the curtain wouldn't blow in the wind.

WHUMP!

The three ninja at the counter spun their barstools slowly to look at the non-ja lying on the ground and stared at her with the most deadpanned look they could muster, and for one who'd practiced the look all his life, one who'd virtually lived a hundred years, and one who was the son of the longest running village leader, these were some pretty deadpan looks, like the pan that Naruto who had thrown at their jounin-sensei deadpan. Ino however was beat red, her face looked like all the blood in her body had suddenly flooded up to it.

Asuma was too shocked to say anything, feeling like his life for the next few months would be training a totally inept genin while he lost track of his two rising stars as they rose into the upper atmosphere.

Shikamaru didn't say anything. He knew Naruto would sum it up just fine.

"Looks like that curtain-ly hurt."

"That was despicable Naruto. Meet me back at the training ground in an hour Naruto, Shikamaru, we'll start team training then."

**Well, there's the seventh chapter. I hope it was long enough. I finally actually drew out a story outline…kinda. Like for the next few chapters. Oh well. Rate and Review. TTYL.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Here's the next installment of my story, Awakenings. I've found that my difficult bit will be keeping Naruto from being overpowered after a hundred years of training. Luckily his training, while extensive, wasn't like Orochimaru trying to learn everything in the world, it was like trying to match his father in everything he did. So he's practically the reincarnation of his father, except for the Hiraishin. It's too sealed up. Also you'll find I'm not going to use the Japanese names for anything except the characters because I can't spell them and it interrupts my flow. I mean, I personally prefer to have those names used, but I'm lazy. I'll continue with the story now.**

Naruto and Shikamaru were walking away from Ichiraku after their five bowls of ramen each. Naruto and Shikamaru had secretly paid for their meals. They'd been slowly making money during their academy years doing off-the-books "E-rank" missions as they called them. They worked for cheaper rates than the genin teams so poorer civilians can afford them. The children had almost alone restored most of the lower slums of Konoha, bringing the city to the current level of prosperity it enjoyed for a really good price. The Hokage knew about it, but he couldn't do anything about it, because reducing that much business in D-ranks, while not overtly illegal, was frowned up. That's why the large clans usually hired out help when it wasn't clan-sensitive work that needed done.

Naruto and Shikamaru were headed back the Uchiha district, where they all had rooms and had decided that upon graduation they would move so they could train together constantly and live as ninja twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. This made certain that their training was mutually productive, each one knowing everything about the others and learning all the jutsu the others knew. They had also decided that anytime they learned a new jutsu they would teach it to Naruto and he would have shadow clones teach it to the others. Naruto didn't like this plan when it was originally brought to him, with being crazy and all thanks to the damned technique, but he had eventually relented. He could see the upside to it and as long as he didn't use hundreds of thousands of them he'd be okay.

Currently, neither of them was saying a thing, each one pondering how long it would take to get Ino into ninja shape from her current nonja status. They were each also considering how they could help, before both coming to the conclusion that they had a sensei for that now and that they would dump her off on him.

"So, let Asuma teach her?" Naruto said casually.

"Yeah, then drill her during team practice, feel out her skills." Shikamaru responded lethargically.

"Think anyone else is back?"

"I doubt it, we got off the easiest. Hinata, Shino, and Chouji got it bad. A new jounin that wants to prove herself to her peers will probably drill them into the ground, make sure they can handle themselves to make up for any of her insecurities with a team. Sasuke and Kiba will drag Sakura through whatever they have to do to pass, but Kakashi is probably required to pass them. Sharingan and all that shit," Shikamaru finished explaining. He took a deep breath afterward. He had decided long ago that if he couldn't say it with just one breath in a relaxed, non combat scenario, he was putting too much effort into things. Consequently, he had probably one of the greatest lung capacities of the genin aside from Naruto.

"Ah well, at least we'll have the spring to ourselves. I love that place. I know my element is wind, but man do I feel at home in the water. It's so relaxing. It's like being in a heavy cloud. Just massages all your muscles away."

Naruto and Shikamaru shared a look, before both used their teleportation techniques to appear at the hot springs.

"You should tell me how you do that one day Naruto."

"It's a Shadow Clone Body Flicker. Instead of the vacuum that the normal body flicker creates which causes things to be blown up in a small tornado where you vanish from I fill that space with a partially formed shadow clone that just dissipates as soon as my chakra stops feeding it."

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at this. He hadn't been expecting Naruto to actually explain the jutsu, but even though he had an idea of it, he couldn't recreate it, so he supposed, in reality, Naruto didn't explain the jutsu to him.

"So what are we going to do today? I mean, we probably shouldn't train. I suppose the only team that will feel the need to train will be Hinata's since it's the only one on the same level and the only one that'll be pushed as hard as they can. Otherwise our team and Sasuke's team each had a dead weight on it so their sensei probably won't have pushed them too hard. Especially since we all cheated and knew the secrets of those tests anyway." Naruto expounded upon the thoughts in his head. In reality he knew Shikamaru would just relax into the hot water since he'd understand the meaning of Naruto's words.

"Indeed Naruto-kun, that seems like a good idea indeed."

"Wha-. Hokage-sama, what are you doing here?" Shikamaru had never been so happy to go through the extra effort to wear board shorts in the hot springs today. Naruto on the other hand…

"Hey, Hokage-jiji. Dodging your grandson again?" Naruto was naked. And didn't care. After practicing anatomy on reinforced Shadow Clones, Naruto literally knew males and females inside and out, and wasn't flustered by nudity or anatomy at all. It was helpful.

"Yes, today he's attempted to assassinate me twenty-seven times and since I finished my paperwork early I thought I would go to the one place he regularly avoids. It would seem he believes there are powerful dragons living here and he thinks they'll eat him if he ever breaks the perimeter." The Hokage chuckled and gave Naruto a questioning look, asking silently for explanation without saying anything, as he usually did of his subordinates.

"Well, you see, we practice some pretty dangerous and experimental ninjutsu here and we tend to overload them with chakra pretty often when we get frustrated, and having that little shit hiding in a bush on the training field would probably be the final knot in the noose before they hang me for treason."

"Ah, yes, I've been reading the reports you've been submitting on your friends Naruto, and I have to say I'm impressed by what you've been teaching them and what you've been learning from them. I'm glad that you're all so well rounded and ready for duty. And, even though I'd like to believe that all my jounin-sensei are diligent in their duties, I'm happy to know you all have strong skills and continue to improve them. I believe that you are correct in your assumption about Kurenai-chan that she will indeed drill her team the hardest. Asuma-kun should do you and young Shikamaru justice once he catches your teammate up to your level, and Kakashi-kun will get better soon I hope, or else I may have to 'have a chat' with him."

Naruto had only once heard the Hokage use the phrase "have a chat" with someone with the inflection he'd just used. It had been when he was six years old, when an academy instructor had placed a seal on him and then had him fight a younger student, Sasuke. After Naruto had been soundly beaten and given the forbidden Shadow Clone technique, the Hokage had known about it and came to Naruto, warning him of the technique, and asking him how he got it. Naruto had told the Hokage the whole story, leaving out nothing, and the Hokage had said he needed to "have a chat" with Mizuki-sensei for placing seals on an academy student and with Iruka-sensei for giving him such a technique. Iruka-sensei never looked at Naruto the same and Mizuki-sensei never came back.

"Ne ne, Hokage-sama, I don't think you need to go to such extreme measures, I'm sure just talking to him will get him fixed up," Naruto said, sounding lethargic but shifting anxiously in the water.

"While I hope you are right Naruto-kun, I will not leave the safety of our children to chance if I can help it," the Hokage said with finality. The water chilled as he thought about what would happen thanks to an inattentive or too easily forgiving sensei. He would not let something like that happen again.

"Hokage-sama, I think you're taking away the point of coming to the hot springs. Also, I thought ice techniques were native to Snow Country?" Shikamaru asked, indicating the ice forming around the aged man where the water met his skin.

"Hm hm hm, yes Shikamaru-kun, I'm sorry. Let me fix that." The aged Hokage began to leach chakra into the water, both boys capable of feeling the density of such potent energy as it flowed around them and the Hokage slowly warmed the water.

"Hokage-sama, are you fire natured?" Naruto asked.

"No, Naruto-kun. With enough training with an element you can reach this level with any of them, but naturally it gets harder and harder the more opposed you get to your attuned element."

"I've gone through elemental training once. I think the next time I do it will be when the others start their elemental training and I'm helping them with that. It took me about the equivalent of five years to get my elemental training to complete mastery."

"You're so troublesome Naruto, sometimes I forget how far ahead you are and how much you're hiding."

"The only reason you have any idea is because we're on a team and I want you to be able to properly formulate plans."

"Tch."

"Hey Hokage-jiji, I have a question and you can't bullshit me on this one or it might get my friends and I killed. You ready?" Naruto asked. He was curious about something and he wouldn't risk his friends life with a straight answer from the man who knew the best. "Are my friends and I ready to take the chuunin selection exam?"

In truth Naruto had asked a question the aged leader had been considering himself. This graduating class was much better than expected, but he was worried that the jounin-sensei would get competitive and not show the common sense they needed to protect the children. Maito Gai had made one of the greatest decisions a jounin-sensei had ever made to ensure that his kids were ready. He held them back. He weighed his options and held them back to make sure they'd have a good strong skill base to fall back on and made certain they were well trained in the things the genin had chosen to specialize in.

Naruto had made sure his friends were ready for the Chuunin exams, there was no doubt about that. Naruto had used his clones to simulate some of the most advanced mission parameters that Chuunin could go on, using the Uchiha compound for assassination, retrieval, search and destroy, rescue, and everything else he could think of. Their skills were top notch and he knew all the jutsu all of them knew, so he was certain he could pull them through the exams, even with what his intelligence division was telling him about the genin of the other villages. The Hokage was thankful that only Shikamaru and Naruto were here, or else he'd worry about someone getting overconfident and killed.

"Yes, Naruto-kun. But still be careful. While I believe you're ready, there are still many variables that can go horribly wrong."

"All right, then if we can get Ino and Sakura up to at least where they'll survive for a day on their own in the Forest of Death-"

"So it was you. You know that forest is off limits to anyone below the rank of chuunin for training purposes unless there are special circumstances or they are accompanied by a jounin, Naruto-kun." The Hokage said, slightly upset with what he was hearing.

"Technically we were supervised by a jounin. Naruto led Mitarashi-san around the forest for a week before finally trapping her and knocking her out. She still doesn't know we did it." For once Shikamaru sounded smug, after fucking over a Tokubestu jounin, he felt like he had a right to be.

The Hokage began laughing uproariously. He did indeed know what had gone on. He had his crystal ball after all and he always kept tabs on Naruto's whereabouts. When Anko had come to him and told him about the ninja in the forest she had been furious at his mirth. He had told her to attempt to capture one to determine their purpose, just to see what Naruto and his friends would do to a fellow Leaf ninja. The Hokage had had faith that Naruto and crew wouldn't do anything to hurt a fellow nin, but he had to be certain. And it had been quite entertaining to watch, but he did have one question he needed answered.

"Naruto, Anko-chan told me when she woke up you were standing over her examining her and she had been unclothed. I hope you haven't done anything uncouth young man."

"Ne ne, I was looking over her seal. I still have a biological year or so before I start having sex and I'm sure I'll be having a lot of it all over this village after the exams, but none the less, I didn't touch her…although she does have some epic boobs."

The Hokage didn't know whether to be stunned or laugh at the young boy's response so he settled on a quiet chuckle and an appraising stare.

"Ch, fine. I recognized her seal from some work that I've been doing actually but it's different than what I'm doing. I don't know why she has it but it's fucked up. It's a storage seal that's linked directly into the chakra network, except it's not pulling chakra out, it's set up to put a foreign chakra in and some kind of venom, as well as opening a link to a secondary seal that allows chakra to be transmitted between the seals. It's constantly attempting to influence the mind chakra, so I'm betting when her emotions hit the fan the thing goes hay-wire. I also noticed imbedded in the ink another ink making another seal in the same seal. It's a trip mechanism that when someone attempts to remove the seal it makes the ink of both seals fade into the skin so while it seems successful it just re-appears. And yes, I stared at her boobs, even touched them a little bit when I was tying her up but come on! She's wearing a net shirt! They're fucking screaming 'I LOVE THE FEELING OF BEING FREE! TOUCH ME HERE!'" Naruto said defensively.

"Can you do anything about her seal Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah, it looks like someone's prototype, like they just cobbled a bunch of seals together to get their purpose and didn't develop a new one to do the job. As for what I'm working on, it's a type of communications seal that will link my squad and the other squads together so we're never out of contact, and I can make a chakra reactive paper that will display our locations on a map. We could eventually put it on all our active duty ninja and set it up on a globe in the Hokage tower. That way you know where all our ninja are at all times. Ino and Sakura are the only ones who don't have the seal and we already have our globe set up here." Naruto didn't like not knowing where everyone was. The only way he could be ready for everything was if he could find everyone when he needed them. He'd be damned if he lost one of his friends because he couldn't find them.

"I'll be leaving then right now Naruto-kun. I'm going to find her and bring her here as soon as you have your solution ready so please get out of your bath and," the Hokage began, but-

"It's already done. I made it as soon as I got back. The chakra in it is gross. Not the worst I've ever felt, but still, it doesn't seem like it should be there. So I already made the removal seal."

The Hokage snapped his fingers and an ANBU agent slid out of the shadows. With a wave of his fingers the ANBU was off. Shikamaru appeared mildly shocked that he hadn't sensed someone hiding in the shadows right next to their bath but Naruto had waved to the ANBU when he'd appeared as if he'd been there the whole time, which he probably had.

"Mendokuse."

Naruto, Shikamaru and the Hokage all climbed out of the bathwater and got dressed, Shikamaru slipping off to prepare tea for their soon to arrive guests and Naruto and the Hokage heading out to the courtyard where Naruto started creating the sealing array he would need. The Hokage watched impressed as Naruto brushed out the massive characters using a large mop-like brush. He painted all over the ground, laying out the framework for the array, followed by the individual characters, then using a smaller brush to make sure all the details were perfect before summoning multiple shadow clones which took up position around the sealing circle.

"Naruto-kun, you said the seal was relatively simple and cobbled together, why such a large sealing array?"

"This is a containment array. The removal sealing array is that little circle in the center. I'm not sure what else is sealed in her seal and if something happens I want to be ready to handle it, or at the very least have it contained so you can handle it."

"Pragmatic as always, Naruto-kun." The Hokage was incredibly pleased with Naruto's preparations and still held out hope that he wouldn't have to tell Naruto how young Anko had got her seal. The Hokage wondered what else Naruto was doing as he fished around in his pack for something.

"Here, Hokage-jiji. I want you to have this. I made it for you." Naruto handed the Hokage an immaculately carved necklace, a perfectly made jade symbol of the Hidden Leaf Village. "Please wear it Hokage-jiji, for my sake. It'd make me happy."

"I promise to always wear it Naruto-kun." Hiruzen Sarutobi was touched that Naruto cared to put so much effort into it. It was beautiful, carved carefully and smoothly rounded. Looking closer the Hokage realized it was covered in a seal. "Naruto-kun, what's this seal here for?"

"In case it gets damaged. Just run a little chakra through it and it'll automatically repair itself. Be careful not to let a piece fall off though, or else the seal will be broken and I'll have to repair it."

"Thank you Naruto-kun. Anko-chan is about to arrive. I hope you're ready to deal with such an exuberant personality."

The Hokage was right. The ANBU agent and Mitarashi Anko landed behind the Hokage in swirls of leaves. The ANBU quickly vanished while Anko stood there, her face completely emotionless.

"Hokage-sama, what's going on?" Anko asked, as monotone as she could manage.

"Naruto-kun is going to remove your seal Anko-chan."

Cliffhanger.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. I hope I can keep up this current rate of updates. I've currently started watching the series on Netflix and that's helping. Read and review please. I'm still working without a beta-reader, so I need mistakes pointed out to me so I can consider fixing them.**

"What?"

That pretty much summed it up. Out of everything that Anko had expected to be told when she was summoned by the Hokage's personal guard to come to the Uchiha compound, this hadn't even been on the list. When the Fourth died, Anko gave up hope that there would be a seal master in the elemental nations knowledgeable enough to pull this tainted mark from her flesh, whether it killed her or not. And now, a three-time graduation failure somehow had the knowledge, the array, and the backing of the Hokage to remove her seal. This was unbelievable.

"Naruto-kun researched your seal after incapacitating you in the Forest of Death and has found a way to remove it with no harm to you. At least, I assume it's at no harm to you."

"Yeah, whatever comes out of her seal will be trapped in a donut shaped force-field sealing array. I know it sounds retarded to describe it that way, but that's the best way to. I just hope you're ready, Hokage-sama. I haven't laid in any of the automatic destruction seals, to make sure nothing gets accidentally destroyed. It'll be up to us to deal with it." Naruto stretched his back after the explanation. He didn't paint the seals himself, but the back ache his shadow clones got was transferred to him in memory and he felt the need to stretch it out.

The Hokage was mildly shocked and slightly worried. He was worried about the garbage that Orochimaru sealed into this poor young woman as well as Naruto figuring out his dastardly secret. Would his trust be broken, would he look down on the only parental figure he'd had, would he –

"I already know. About Orochimaru. Yeah, the files are sealed, but the Legendary Three are legendary. Hence the name. Look back far enough, cross check graduation dates, d-rank mission logs, your history, it's pretty easy to figure out. Well, easy for a couple hundred shadow clones researching all the different great ninja of history to learn training methods and lost techniques. Everybody fucks up, it's how you fix your mistakes that matters."

"Too wise for your years Naruto-kun. But if you know all of that, why didn't you include the destruction seals?"

"This seal is degraded. Dangerously so. More than likely whatever is in it is degraded and can be recovered. I know how obsessed he is with immortality. I don't want to be immortal, but maybe we can find a hole in his immortality. Plus…it would be kinda nice to ensure that I live long enough to kill this thing off."

Naruto knew all about Orochimaru. The files and research had told him all he needed to know and helped him stay on the straight and narrow. Naruto's shadow clone had literally popped as soon as he pieced it all together. Naruto was prepared for certain things to happen but he knew he was far from fully prepared. He hoped having the Hokage present along with Shikamaru and an ANBU they'd be set. Anko would be pretty much out of it. This was going to be painful. Tearing a chakra source out of a body after it was so fully integrated after so many years would be painful as hell. He knew this because he'd considered it and researched it in one of his many moods.

"By the way Anko, this is going to hurt worse than anything you've ever experienced in your life and you'll probably be off of active duty for three or four months. If Tsunade-sama was here she could patch you up in a couple weeks, but that's beside the point." Naruto said as he kneeled down next to the sealing array.

"_Maybe not as beside the point as you think Naruto-kun. More than likely anything that comes out of there will need a medic to completely discern the nature of along with young Anko-chan so we can get an idea of how it may have progressed from there. It's finally time to cut off the head of the snake and burn the body, so it no longer seeks the tree's forbidden fruit."_

"Naruto-kun, do you have a sealing scroll ready to seal away whatever is in her seal?"

"I'm carrying three-hundred and forty-two actually. That's all this scroll would hold."

"Mendokuse."

"Can we fucking do this already?"

"Fine, but you're gonna have to strip."

Without another word Anko stripped naked, her assets jiggling with her movements. Naruto kept his composure but he memorized every detail of her body down to the freckles on her…knees. He kneeled down once he got a good eyeful and began channeling chakra through the array. The energy flowed around the edges like a miasma, slow, unstoppable, and mystifying. "Get ready." The energy pulsed suddenly and the chakra swirled like a raging inferno before suddenly diving into the sealing array, the black ink turning bright blue before spring up to Anko's seal. The lines of ink looked like they were ripping away the seal, dragging out something with it.

The aged Hokage recognized the body of his student as it was extracted from this poor young woman's flesh. He looked at here, wondering why she wasn't screaming. While he wasn't pleased with his answer, he understood. One of the ink lines had covered her mouth and held her head still so as to keep her from breaking Naruto's concentration. He had already expended about a quarter of his chakra into the seal but it appeared as if things were coming to a head.

Naruto grunted as he poured energy into the sealing array, using it to help him manipulate the inky tendrils around Anko's body. He had required she get naked completely so he could be sure that no secondary measures that he might have missed activated. It also helped keep all his attention on her. He wasn't looking at the seal and what was coming out of it, instead his eyes were fixed steadily on her navel as he used his chakra to feel what he was doing rather than see it and risk the shock breaking his concentration. He did however see the eerie purple chakra come slithering along the sealing line and into seal he had designed above his own Shiki Fuuin. The Hokage was shocked to see this. He moved to intervene but couldn't tear himself from the spot on the ground, as if he was rooted to the-

"Shadow Bind Technique: Success."

"What are you doing Shikamaru-kun?"

"Part of the plan Hokage-sama. Naruto already knew about the chakra and he's re-purposed a containment seal to feed it slowly to the Shiki Fuuin. It'll filter it just like it does the Kyuubi's chakra. It's basically just a chakra filter than turns any chakra into Naruto's chakra. He also knew you'd probably shit your robes the minute you saw what was going on and that you would try to intervene but I can't let you do that."

"What about the ANBU agent?"

"Won't do anything without your orders. He's probably hoping Naruto gets killed here. Naruto figured all I had to do was explain this to you and even though you didn't like it you'd let it happen."

"_It seems young Naruto-kun is more devious than I gave him credit for. He will be dangerous in the future."_

The Hokage watched as the dark purple chakra threaded through the array and slid right into the containment seal on his chest. His attention was turned back to Anko when he heard his ANBU agent curse. Out of the seal came sliding a body, one he recognized as his student's. But it was degraded. The skin was purplish and grey, distinct signs of decay, the hair was thin and wispy. Even still, to recover this would give them an incredible amount of intel on Orochimaru and his experiments in living forever. He watched as the body was fully extruded, like the most disgusting bit of tooth paste he had ever seen until finally it slid fully out of her body, dropped to the ground, and disappeared in a flash of smoke. Anko's seal dissolved completely and she dropped to the ground unconscious as did Naruto. The seal on the ground however remained, completely undisturbed.

"_What have you done my wayward apprentice? This is disgusting. I'll have to ask Naruto what happened to the body."_

Naruto was unconscious and the chakra in the area had faded away, everything seemingly back to normal. The Hokage turned to ask Shikamaru if things had gone as expected, but before he could get a word in things were summed up for him.

"Well shit."


	10. Chapter 10

_It's that time again. I've reached number ten. Rate and review for me, and I'll have more to read. I'm the starving artist type…who's studying mechanical engineering. _

Naruto awoke in a brightly lit hallway, dry as a bone, the floor seemed freshly waxed and the fluorescent lighting was humming away obnoxiously. As Naruto walked nonchalantly down the hallway he could hear voices arguing.

"You infernal fox, untie me this instant! I'll come for you and tear you from this boy just to store you in a battery to power my television!"

"Shut the hell up. If I could let you out I wouldn't. I'd stuff you in a smaller box and then shit in it, now that I can!"

"Kyuubi how's our little prisoner?" Naruto questioned.

"Oh, as bitchy as expected. He doesn't look too good. This little piece of soul has been degraded into a worthless worm. Either way, he should be stuffed full of everything Orochimaru knew up until this point. We'll know everything he knows in a month. This little device of yours is interesting." The Kyuubi liked Naruto, he'd had quite a good sadistic streak when younger, tearing apart small animals in the woods to release anger, tearing apart the landscape. Once he'd gotten a little more mature he'd turned into a silent brooding type, which didn't really sit well with the Kyuubi. But he knew ninja, he knew how they worked. T & I was far sicker than anything he'd done yet, and he wanted to know about it.

"How are the new digs suiting you? Everything up to snuff?"

"When I said the most Hellish place you could think of I didn't think you'd pick a hospital-type setting but yes, it's clean, not full of water and I can wonder around a large constantly changing place. I'm glad you learned to fuck with your dreamscape. It's much cleaner this way."

Naruto had fought the Kyuubi already, and won. With the shakiest tactic anyone had ever imagined. He cheated. Naruto had fought the Kyuubi in his mind, and it was his mind. He pulled out all the stops, manipulating the landscape, using shadow clones, jutsu he could never pull off in reality, techniques he had learned from the Uchiha clan complex and library, cheating the reality of the real world with the reality in his mind. He'd even developed special storage seals outside to store up all the mind chakra he could so he wouldn't run out. After six months of storing up all the mind chakra he could spare and still function as a student he'd done it. And it took him three weeks. It left him a bunch of new scars on his body that the Kyuubi refused to get rid of. He didn't mind, although his dark tanned skin and his bright white scars did give him a pretty horrified tortured look. He heard girls dug the tortured soul thing though, and he took that to a new level.

"I'm still looking for a way out when you die, you know." Kyuubi said, looking at Naruto out of the corner of his eye.

"I know, that's why I'm looking for a way to live forever." Naruto replied smirking. He knew he couldn't live for eternity, he didn't want to, but he did plan to keep the Kyuubi trapped until he'd found a good, long-term solution. He knew it might take a long time. He planned to have the time.

"So he's found a way to store his body, which I'm betting he cloned, and a portion of his chakra here, which as you know by your research into Yamanaka clan techniques, the mind will return to the nearest intact chakra source. I'm betting he's spread these throughout his followers, letting them tap into his chakra for power, but his body will just make more for them to use over time. Basically he's just passing out get out of death free cards." Kyuubi summed up his findings. The good part about living in a medical mindscape, instant testing on anything Naruto knew about. The downside was exerting himself in the mindscape to keep Naruto's will from interfering with the tests. It was delicate, but it was efficient.

"I'm betting it's not that easy. Foreign chakra is dangerous, and Orochimaru's is as unique as a tailed-beasts. Forcing it into adults with developed chakra systems probably isn't giving him a good success rate. But he probably just sees it as a way to weed out the weaklings."

Naruto mulled this over. He didn't know what to make of it. He'd have to take this new data to the Hokage, but that meant telling him he knew about the Kyuubi and that he'd been not entirely honest about his relationship with the big old beast. Of course, it didn't look like a big old beast right now. It decided to take the image of its most hated enemy, the one who claimed to be Uchiha Madara. The Kyuubi knew the chakra and it knew it would sense the signature long before Naruto saw it, but better safe than sorry. It planned to burn the image into Naruto's mind. Kyuubi knew one day Naruto would meet that man, even if he had to drag him back from Hell itself to kill him again. He would have his revenge.

The Kyuubi cocked his head to the side, as if listening for something in the completely silent halls of Naruto's mind. Then he smirked.

"You forgot."

"What? Fuck."

The Hokage and Shikamaru just stood there as Anko stirred. Naruto stirred almost simultaneously. The Hokage and Shikamaru shared a look. Shikamaru was used to this sort of thing by now, he was more worried about what the Hokage would say. Naruto's eyes snapped open for less than a second to look Shikamaru in the eye. Shikamaru walked up to Naruto, leaned down next to him and placed his hand on his shoulder, and began rubbing his neck with his thumb, drawing on him. First he drew an eye, then the letter R.

"Naruto, everything okay?" Shikamaru asked.

Naruto kept his eyes shut until he felt the excess chakra flowing into his eyes cease.

"Yeah, all good. Thanks for the warning but it seems we're fucked on keeping that particular secret from the hat now." The hat is what they called the Hokage when they were referring to his office, something he'd have to deal with in an official capacity. It sounded derogatory but saying the word hat didn't usually tip anyone off, no matter how you said it, and if they were keeping secrets of national security from the government not tipping anyone off is very important.

Naruto looked at the Hokage, knowing the talk coming was going to be a bastard…

Naruto sighed, "That wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be." He'd told the Old Man everything about the Kyuubi, their fight, his underhanded victory, the analysis of Orochimaru's chakra sans the soul piece, the way the seals were being used, all of it. They'd all stood in that courtyard for an hour. Shikamaru's and Naruto's seals had pulsed, letting them know they were wanted by the others, but they suppressed them.

"I'm glad you're not upset Naruto-kun but I'm going to have to try to verify what you're telling me about the tailed beasts and their containers. And while I do trust you Naruto-kun I also need to confirm what you're telling me about Orochimaru. If this is true and he's continued using this seal it seems to me that killing him will be exponentially more difficult."

"Well, the only way you're going to confirm what I've learned about Orochimaru is to take his body to a medic who can analyze everything without degrading anything else." Naruto summed up. After he said this he felt around inside his pouch and pulled out the scroll containing Orochimaru's body and tossed it to the Hokage, who caught it so quickly and tucked it into his robes the only visible sign was the hem of his robe fluttering.

"There are only two people I can think of who could analyze that body. One's Orochimaru, and I doubt he'd be very helpful with that. The other is Tsunade of the Sannin. I guess you'll have to recall her to active duty after all huh?" Naruto finished. He had meant to ask the Hokage about a reference to the names of the tailed beasts he had read about when researching great ninja of the past, but it seemed too late now. He'd just have to wait until later.

"Well, I'm sure your friends are wondering where you are. Go find them, we can show ourselves out," the Hokage then made a shooing motion, sending Naruto and Shikamaru on their way, effectively dismissing them. "Anko, what is on your mind?"

"Naruto, Hokage-sama. He worries me. If he and the fox are working together and Naruto is showing absolutely no signs of influence, I'm more worried than if he was. He could snap, and we wouldn't even know it. Even worse, if he decided that the village doesn't deserve his protection, would anyone be able to stop him with the full force of the fox on his side? I don't know…he'll either be another Fourth, or another Orochimaru, and right now, I think he's walking on a tight rope either way."

"Hmm…and with the renovations that the new genin have made here, they've turned the Uchiha clan complex into a fortress set up for siege. But is it to defend the village…or to defend against it…all we can do is wait and see."

The Hokage knew that he would not sleep well for quite some time, not until Naruto's plans were either proven benevolent…or unstoppable…because he knew Naruto would live up to his name…and be a force of nature.

**And end. I had this nearly finished the day after I updated chapter 9. But forgot about it. Then I started writing chapter 10 under a different file name. So I didn't find it. But then I did. So ta-da! Oh, I'm 21 now, btw.**


	11. Chapter 11

Naruto was chilling in the hot springs with everyone else, jovially discussing their passing. No one was talking about their tests because no one wanted to think about them, but they were all now shinobi of Konoha. Just one more step in their master plan.

"So, Naruto, Shikamaru, any plans about Ino? Gonna drag her ass through the brush or let Asuma-san beat her into shape?" Kiba asked.

"We're planning to let Asuma-sensei do it. I think it'll be easier this way. He'll get her up to Chunin status to avoid dragging us down hopefully and that'll deal with it. Something will have to break her though." Shikamaru said, glancing at Sasuke. "Maybe we can break both girls with one plan?"

"No, you are not murdering me to fix them Shika, even if it is a clone, or genjutsu." Sasuka replied, having had this conversation before.

It had come up as a joke, but the conversation had gotten more serious over time. Watching someone you coveted die and being powerless to help is a pretty intense motivator. But Sasuke was the ultimate example of that, and he refused to do that to others just to motivate them a little. He was sure that they could fix them, now that they were on teams with the other members of their little circus. They wouldn't have a choice. They would need to get in shape or they would get killed.

"It's been a ridiculously long day. I feel like the powers that be forget how to keep track of time in the story of our lives, so I'm going to bed," Naruto said. He was exhausted. The test, sealing, conversation, more conversation, and relaxation had taken a lot out of him, and while he had the luxury of sleep he was going to indulge in it.

The others went to bed shortly after, staying silent until their slow departures. Each one had their own room, and they slept on the same floor, in the same hall way, to ensure they'd be able to respond to outside threats, should any breach the compound.

As Naruto lie in bed he thought about the future and what it would bring. He was glad to have at least a decent team, with the ability to think fast, react powerfully, and gather intel. It was everything a force recon team needed. He had faith that Asuma-sensei would either polish Ino into a diamond or grind her into dust. Either way, not his problem. He would continue to train with the others and hopefully they'd live long enough to become legendary, and then retire during a time of peace. He wondered what the others were thinking.

Shikamaru was still in the hot springs. He spent a lot of time there, looking at the sky. It was cloudless tonight and he took it as an omen to mean his life was going to be very busy. The world wasn't going to allow him to cloud watch when he could be doing more productive things. He was also sure Naruto himself wouldn't let him rest, since lives now depended on his level of training. That was something Naruto had forced them to learn. A mistake in the academy is a minor injury or a bad grade, but in the real world you could be crippled, broken, or killed. That was something he intended to avoid.

Shikamaru got up and toweled off, moving to his room. His seal on his pectoral seemed to glow visibly black even in the dark. He was happy they had it. The ability to send messages over long distances silently and to be able to sense one another was something incredibly useful. He had considered why it never faded, but seals that are active are using chakra and since they were always broadcasting their locations to one another he realized they'd never fade. He wondered if Naruto would brand Ino with their seal once he thought her up to par, but he also wondered if Ino would let him.

Thoughts for another time, now was time for sleep.

Chouji munched away on a bag of chips, his clan jutsu requiring extra body mass to be utilized to their full potential, he never stopped eating. With his group of solid cohorts he felt safe, never feeling judged or harassed like he had been in school. He ate with them, instead of against them, everyone chipping in, himself included, to be able to afford and prepare the extensive meals they all ate together. The most important thing to him was meal times. They set aside one day a week when they ate all three meals together and prepared them all together without the use of jutsu and he thought those meals tasted the best.

He was excited that they were starting their ninja career but he was also slightly nervous as he realized these days would be the first to go with their new schedules and teams. He was sure, however, that they would still make time for them. They were all too hard headed to let their sensei break them up constantly to do that, and he knew his sensei would understand.

An idea struck him at this thought. Why not invite the sensei to the weekly meal? They could help out and build better camaraderie through food, something food had a unique way of doing. He'd have to propose this idea to the group at breakfast tomorrow. But for now, he was done with his chips and ready to sleep.

"Whoo boy, Akamaru. Finally on a team, gonna be ninja, getting trained up with my pack-mates. This is fun." Kiba spoke to his fluffy puppy, soon to be war dog companion. He was excited. Anything that had ever bothered him had melted away finally. He knew why Naruto smelled funny, they'd finally gotten all the stench of blood and death out of the Uchiha compound, he had a pack that he felt like he belonged to not because he was born into it, but because he earned his place into it, and he was gaining skills faster and faster. He was excited for what was to come next.

He lied down in his bed, Akamaru jumping up to join him. He pulsed his seal in the warm way that the group had gotten used to as a way to say "we're safe" or goodnight as the case currently was. He drifted off, finally free of worry.

Shino was sitting in his room, communing with his colony. They were pleased and humbled by the colony Shino now found himself part of. The constant overflow of chakra in the air probably had something to do with it, but Shino didn't mind it one bit. His colony was feeding on the constantly shifting chakra Naruto released from his body, growing and becoming stronger because of the unique properties it had. He was content. His thoughts drifted into the simple language he and his insects used to communicate as he drifted off to sleep.

Hinata Hyuuga was excited to be asleep only a thin wall away from her crush. Her powerful, wise, intelligent, dexterous, strong, charismatic, blond crush. He was her hope for the future. He would bring power to the village, but more importantly, he may finally be able to cross the chasm that had formed in her clan.

Hinata had made leaps and bounds of progress in her taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu detection, and doujutsu proficiency. Naruto's thorough study of all things Konoha had revealed to him the weakness of her clans technique. The blindspot that grew smaller with age but never fully went away. And he had helped her develop a way to cover this blind spot, currently by an armored collar that she wore happily around her neck. She was also training to reduce the blindspot to an unreasonably small size. This would make her father very happy.

However, there was one, even more powerful, hope she had. Naruto was currently one of the most knowledgeable seal masters in Konoha. He had broken the cursed seal, and so young. He spat in the face of Konoha's greatest traitor and had learned from him. Maybe, just maybe, he could break the curse placed on her family. All she would have to do is be made clan head. Or even more amazingly, she could convince her father to reunite the clan. Unity. Naruto had taught her unity was power. And now, she could bring unity to the Hyuuga. All she needed was a little help from her friends.

Tomorrow was truly a new day.

Sasuke was having a good day. He had family again. The halls of his clan home were restored to their previous glory, some even more glorious than before. He was now a ninja, which as Naruto had explained, put him on a collision course with his brother. He could become Anbu, and then hunter-nin, and then he could freely search for him. Destroy him. All under the banner of Konoha. Naruto and his friends were fueling him up with power he couldn't even dream of occasionally. They were getting better. He had finally been disillusioned, once again by Naruto, of the idea he'd find Itachi alone. He was happy to say he would have good back-up. He had also been disillusioned of the idea that Itachi would not grow stronger than before since he had left Konoha. However, as Naruto had said…once again, it was better to have the financial backing and resources of the most powerful hidden village on the continent, as well as the jinchuuriki of the most powerful bijuu ever formed, when attempting a mission that would lead lesser men to commit suicide just from being assigned it.

Naruto was still an enigma to him. He learned more about him every day. Why he acted the way he did. He knew the general arc of his story so far, but that didn't help him understand how powerful Naruto was. He was glad though. Even if he could only gather up the scraps of power Naruto left behind as he walked he would be able to eventually become one of the strongest ninja ever.

Yes, he was having a good day. Now it was time to sleep and have a good night.

Naruto lie awake in bed, staring at the ceiling, thinking about the sealing, and wondering if everything was going to be okay. He was happy. He could say that, now that his emotions were pretty much back together and he'd finally let loose the big secret to the Hat that he'd been hiding. The compound was strong, his friends were unified and ready to stand against anything, his seals were working well, Orochimaru had been fully dissected by Kurama, he'd learned Kurama's name finally, and he had official ninja status.

Now all he had to do was hope the jonin instructors they had been assigned would be worth the time they'd be taking away from group training. Hopefully they would be. The kids were ready for C-rank or higher missions already, but no one knew that. They were ready for the Chuunin exams, but no one knew that either. Naruto believed they were finally ready to start this whole ninja thing. Which he thought was about damn time as well, considering how long he'd been at this.

Tomorrow would be a new day. Now he just had to sleep to bring it about.

_**I live. **_


	12. Chapter 12

Naruto awakens, his mind snapping to alert focus, his excessive training snapping him into reality almost too soon. The consequences of his excess training were slowly dwindling but he could still remember the times he went too far too fast and, quite literally, he nearly killed himself. His shadow clones took his orders to heart and nearly decapitated him for the first few weeks. He had immersed himself in his own private warzone, suffering the horrors of war, his clones transforming themselves into different ninja with different allegiances, forcing him to fight against all the great shinobi villages. As his power developed his clones would use the more specialized ninjutsu of the different villages, or as close as they could get through tedious research, attacking in groups of known alliances and random alliances that his clones could conceive of using. Trial by fire embodied the will of fire in Naruto's mind. This was how he started, and why he stopped. He became paranoid, like a veteran shinobi who had actually survived the wars. He was jumping at shadows, anyone who was nondescript, ninja, civilians, anyone who might be a clone in disguise waiting to end him. Even now he wasn't necessarily sure who was real and who wasn't regardless of the link he seemed to share with his clones. At least now he always woke up somewhere safe and alone. It gave his mind time to assess his surroundings and come down from the battle-ready state he woke up in.

As it was now he could smell breakfast cooking. Meats, eggs, vegetables, fruits, breads, it was a veritable feast every time they had a meal together, which was almost every meal. They ate exactly the right formula of nutrients to make sure they grew as quickly as possible, to develop lean, strong, dense muscle and to keep their internal organs flushed of toxins and healthy. Naruto had thoroughly researched dietary requirements and had come up with a specific diet for each of them. He ate almost as much as Chouji did, and that had surprise the others at first, but they quickly became accustomed to the chaotic meals. Food was often served by being thrown through the air, residual chakra sticking it to the plates it was on, or if it could be used as a projectile it was. They had only had a few tame meals when they all came together and hadn't loosened up yet. Now it was pure chaos. Kami forbid anyone else comes to one of their meals without announcing themselves.

Naruto dressed in his combat uniform, gathered his weapons and equipment, and checked his seal storage tattoos that held his mission gear and more equipment. He was always ready for action, just like a good shinobi. The others had opted not to have the tattoos added to their bodies, just to carry the sealing scrolls Naruto had manufactured for them. In this moment he realized how well prepared they all were for anything, all the time. With this thought he headed out to the battlefie…breakfast table.

Chouji was busily preparing breakfast for everyone, knowing the best way to get their approval on an idea was to stuff their hungry maws first and take every grunt they made as acceptance. It had worked for him in the past, and had even been used by Naruto to get Sasuke to agree to their residence in his home. They were all quite happy with the results.

Shikamaru's lazy streak had been brutally stomped from him by Naruto, and he could be found assisting Chouji by setting the table and making sure everything was arranged for optimum food sharing. They sat at a large table, with a large path missing down the middle. It was large enough that Chouji could comfortably walk down it, and that was how they loaded the table with their sustenance. It made it easier than crawling over everyone, especially Kiba, who must have woke up the earliest to bathe every day, also thanks to Naruto, and be at the table, bouncing up and down in his chair excitedly awaiting the feast that would be laid out before him.

Hinata typically arrived at some point during the preparation to help with the final table settings. Her graceful movements allowed her to carry nearly overflowing pitchers of milk and fruit juice to satisfy all her friends. When Naruto had proposed their nutritional requirements she had taken to them passionately, mother-henning over their nutritional needs with Chouji.

Shino sat down, meals always a slight struggle for him with his kikaichu bugs. They could smell the delicious food and wanted to immediately help themselves, but he was able to rein them in now that these meals had become routine to them. There were never any scraps to clean up thanks to his bugs.

Sasuke and Naruto usually seemed to slip in last, but no one was really sure whether they slipped in last or they didn't notice them until the table was set. They were the quietest of the group, Hinata a close third, making no sound as they moved even when fully loaded with ninja gear. It was really something special to watch them walk across a room, not disturbing a thing, making no noise. It was like watching Kami and the Shinigami walk to you, unflappable, silent, and unstoppable. Their aura of power was inspiring to the other members of the group, knowing that Naruto trained Sasuke the hardest to ensure he was ready for his goal.

Now that they had all assembled, the table was loaded, and the glasses filled to the brim, a moment of silence preceded the chaos before the food began flying. Only ninjas could possibly eat like graceful barbarians. As everyone stuffed their faces before the day's warm up, prior to the team meetings Chouji thought now would be the best time to propose his idea.

"Hey guys, I thought of something we could do last night." Chouji began hesitantly. Naruto's eyes looked inquisitively at him over his glass, while the others slowed their eating and gave him their divided attention. "I was thinking, we do these group meals and they've been great for us, so what do you say Saturday when we do group meal day we invite our sensei? Build up camaraderie and what not?"

"What about Ino and Sakura?" Sasuke posed the question, swallowing an abnormally large mouthful of food, causing tears to spring to his eyes.

"We could invite them as well. Maybe it would break their poor dietary habits and make them feel like a part of our group," Hinata commented. The chaos of the initial plate filling had calmed, and aside from how quick they were eating, the table was oddly well mannered.

"We could make a day of it, take supplies to the training grounds, make it a barbeque," Shikamaru added idly.

"Sounds good, let's make it this Saturday, that gives us two days to plan it and get enough food for everyone, I mean think about how much we eat. We'll be inviting a few more ninjas. I'd bet anything no one sees Kakashi's face the entire time," Sasuke remarked.

Naruto stood up from the table, not saying another word, carrying his dishes into the kitchen and slipping out into the back yard. No one noticed him leave, but everyone noticed him being gone and quickly cleaned up, hurrying out into the yard to begin their morning warm up.

The ninjas began to warm up, stretching their muscles, popping their joints and stretching one another's bodies beyond the limit to ensure that they were getting more and more flexible, for that less second dodge, that last little millimeter that would have you dodge a kunai. It was entirely necessary, and many people seemed to neglect training their body in ways to dodge every little thing or pushing their minds to increase their chakra pools. They began working out, lifting weights and jogging around, sparring with clones. There was no training today, just enough to get them off to their teams.

**I'm trying to speed up my updates so if no one minds I'd like to make short chapters like movie scenes. So far the constant slew of favorites has kept up my interest in writing this beast and I'm incredibly happy with where it's headed. I've decided to adjust my focus to keep it Naruto-centric and I'll use this team meal mechanic when I can to flashback to what the others did. Thanks, and would you kindly write me a review?**


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